


Error

by winkette



Category: Bitty Bones - Fandom, Bittybones - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bittybones, Blackberry bitty, Error-type bitty, First time Bitty Owner, Gen, Mild Cursing, Monsters on the Surface, learning about monsters, slumber party
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2018-12-09 16:16:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 42,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11672652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winkette/pseuds/winkette
Summary: You find yourself a strange, trouble-making bitty and decide to adopt him. Although it seems more like he adopted you?You adopt each other...And then you go about living your happy life with a tiny skeleton.Right?Ya, just, don't panic.





	1. You've caught something

**Author's Note:**

> This is more of a fun side story that I'm typing when I can. I don't really have a plan/plot for this. Guess we'll have to see where this goes together.
> 
> Edit: Story formally titled "You've Got an Error"

You were fairly certain you were crazy by this point.

The thought crossed your mind several times during your short shift at work.

You breathe a heavy sigh and push all thoughts from your mind and start to head home. Mentally, you list through the possible scenes that might greet you when you came home tonight.

Mara, your best friends’ cat, could have found whatever it is that’s been driving you slowly insane or she may have found nothing, proving that you are, in fact, insane. You silently hoped it was a rat or squirrel scratching in your walls, but that wouldn’t explain much else that you’ve been dealing with the past month.

Okay. Okay! Okayokayokay, think positive! Be prepared for _anything_. Just, deep breath, and open the door.

You psych yourself up in front of your door and slowly turn the knob. You’ve learned to keep the door shut for at least ten seconds, then you carefully push the door open and look up. Okay, no buckets this time.

You proceed to open the door, nearly wide enough to enter now, and look down. You’re greeted with your normal, not-covered-in-weird-goop flooring and peer around the rooms that you can see. No reflecting fishing line hanging through the air, no weird dark spots on the walls, tape on the railing, grease on the doorknobs, or firecrackers poised in the nearest lighting fixtures.

Okay, so far so good.

Slowly you enter your home, taking a chance to look behind the door before stepping in too far. With a gentle ‘click’, the bolt finds the lock and your stuck facing the rest of your abode without a shield.

“Mara?” You call. Somewhere in the house you hear a mew in answer, but she doesn’t come running. “Mara. Here pretty kitty.”

She gives you a purr that rolls into a meow but she doesn’t move to show herself to you.

Did she have something?

You drop the gear you’ve been carrying by the door and quietly walk into the darkened hallway, calling again for the grey cat who still refuses to show herself. This time you follow her answering calls to the master bathroom and habitually open the door slowly.

There, lying next to the bathtub, is Mara, but she still refuses to move. She’s turned her furry face to greet you, meowing when you two make eye contact, but her tail is twitching in that way that tells you she’s found something.

Heart racing, you kneel to the floor and reach out to pet the fluff.

“Hey girl, did you catch something?” She meows again, leaning into the attention, but something moves under her and she whips back around the pin in down with her two front paws.

You catch sight of something blue or black, not quite sure, and you feel a grin stretch your face.

‘She caught it! She caught it!’

You can finally sleep in peace now.

A happy sigh escapes you as you reach for the cat. Though she’s interested in her catch, she lets you slide one hand under her, hold onto whatever she caught, and pick her up with the other hand. She lets out a single meow in mild annoyance and never takes her eyes off of the weird..tiny… thing.

It's not fuzzy under your hands, so it’s not a mouse, but it’s still squirming to escape and hide. Careful to slide one finger at a time around the squirming body, you manage to pick up the life form in a gentle but firm grip to keep it from escaping again.

You blink.

It…it looks like a black skeleton.

The little…thing…is squirming in your hand, wearing a tiny blue hoodie and using its’ one free hand to claw at your fingers. You see two red legs kicking weakly below your palm and a single gruph noise escapes it.

You refocus on the little thing’s red and yellow eyes, blinking once to make sure that you’re actually seeing what you think you’re seeing.

“Hi.” Okay, polite, that’s…a start..I guess. The thing didn’t stop squirming. “So, uh, are you the one who’s been messing with my house the past month?”

The little guy stills at the question and looks up at you guiltily, hunching its shoulders to seem smaller in your hand.

“Is that a ‘yes’ then?” A strange bright blue color starts to dust the little black skeletal face but it doesn’t admit to anything.

“Can you talk?”

Again, it tries to hide further in your hand.

“Okay..” You shift to your knees, placing Mara back on the ground, and stand with your tiny hostage.

“I hope the cat didn’t hurt you. My friend said she just likes to catch things and sit on them.”

It doesn’t say anything.

“So you look like a Bitty, from what I’ve seen. I’ll take you over to the shelter tomorrow morning and we can figure out what to do from there, okay?”

The little bitty squeaked in your hand and you looked over to see his eyes wide and..

Was he hurt?

“Hey, you okay?” You bring your other hand around to cup behind him, despite the fact that he’s still clutched in your other.

He breaks eye contact with you and smacks his one free hand against your finger. He looks unhappy about something, but you can’t figure what.

“Is something wrong, little Bitty?”

He still refuses to look at you, but starts to gently bite at the fat on your finger. You wonder if he’s nervous or upset or hungry. Wait.

“I can’t risk you just running off again, little guy. I don’t know where you came from or anything so I’ve got a Bitty carrier to put you in, but did you want anything to eat for the night?”

You had already made your way outside, keys jingling at your hip, and making your way to the trunk of your car. The bitty hadn’t answered when you popped open the trunk and reached in to grab the fairly large, clear bitty cage. You had rented it, and others, for two nights in the event that Mara actually managed to catch something.

You shut the trunk, walk inside, set the carrier on the table, place the bitty inside, and head for the kitchen before you hear anything from the bitty.

You’re bringing him a small cube of cheddar cheese and some crackers to snack on when you find him huddled in the corner of the carrier, crying.

Quickly walking over and placing the snacks to the side, you bend down next to the cage and try to meet his eyes. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He has the hood pulled over his head and his face is buried into his sleeves so you can’t meet his eyes. He shakes his head at you furiously, like a child refusing to meet a parents’ eye, and curls tighter into the corner.

You shiver as you feel sins crawl up your back, but you don’t quite know what to do right now.

Tapping the table with your fingers, you can’t help but hunch in on yourself, feeling a little guilty about catching the troublesome bitty. Eventually you just decide that you might be a little mean and you place the cheese and crackers into the carrier, force your guilt aside, and head to the bathroom for a shower.

Your showered and ready for bed an hour later. Dressed in simple pajamas, you consider checking on the Bitty one more time, but choose not to chance the little monster guilt-tripping you into letting him out again.

So you go to bed, not quite happy with yourself, but knowing that there wouldn’t be any more pranks tomorrow.

And you weren't crazy, so there's that.


	2. He's a what?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You learn just what it is you caught

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow guys! Thanks so much for all the love and support on this random little story. Here's another chapter for ya, I hope you enjoy! <3

The bell dings as you push the windowed door open and step inside to the air-conditioned shop. You take a deep breath and savor the breeze created from the fans then look down at the bitty still huddled in the bitty carrier. You had placed a cold pack wrapped in a dish towel inside the carrier to keep him cool so the magic-laced plastic was a bit foggy, but he was still sitting in the corner.

Not a minute later, a tall rabbit with lavender fur and stylish, white-rimmed glasses walked into the waiting area. She smiled wide at the sight of you and joyously hopped over to the desk in front of you.

“Hello, darling! Did you have any luck with the cat yesterday?”

You smiled and nodded at her “Ya, you were right, it was a bitty. Though…” You lift the carrier to the desk top and gently place it down. The little bitty inside was looking up at the bunny monster curiously but had yet to uncurl himself for the corner. “I’ve never seen this type of bitty before. Do you have any ideas?”

The bunny monster, Mama Nina, knelt down to get a good look. Her face was kind and curious when you had shown her the carrier, but once she had a better look at him, her eyes widened and a cautious grin played at her lips.

“Oh wow, I don’t believe it.”

“What?”

Her yellow eyes shone bright as she looked back up at you. “He’s a Blackberry.”

You blinked. “A what?” You knelt down to look at him again. He turned his eyes to you, bright blue on his cheek bones and wonder in his own eyes. Something tugged at your heart the way he looked so in awe and happy with the bunny monster. You smiled at him encouragingly and let out a little laugh.

Mama Nina stood up and started riffling through a drawer. “They’re a type of super rare bitty bones that only showed up in the bitty community about two years ago. They had a speaker about them at the Bitty Conventions.” She pulled out a folder with a few packets inside of it, poking out of the side was a flyer for the Bitty Convention from last year. “Here.” She passed you the packet.

As you flipped through the pages, Mama Nina opened the bitty carrier and removed your ice pack, placing it on the counter to offer the bitty some monster candy.

The mix of packets and flyers in your hands listed what was understood about ‘Blackberry Bitties’, while some packets went into greater detail. You settled for skimming the bulleted and highlighted lists of information while keeping an eye on your own little Blackberry.

They were listed under ‘choatic bitties’, you didn’t even know they had those. It stated that there had been a few reports of these new bitties popping up at unusual locations. Whereas normal bitties were created from a mixture of magic and strong emotions, these ‘chaotic’ bitties were created from a mixture of energy and magic.

You reread that last statement.

“Energy and Magic?” You asked.

Mama Nina nodded excitedly. “Yes, it’s why they’re called a ‘chaotic’ type. The two elements don’t usually mix together but they think it has something to do with the type of magic.” She waved her fingers at the bitty snacking on the monster candy and straightened up. “It’s actually both fascinating and a potential problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“Well, currently the ‘chaotic’ label was developed to describe the only thing that the Blackberries have in common. Pranks. From how well your Blackberry is behaving, I’d have to say he’s a chaotic good or a chaotic neutral, but there have been a few crime busts around the world where one or two of the criminals had a chaotic evil Blackberry.”

You stared back at the kind monster, eyes wide in surprise and briefly thank any and all gods that you had a ‘good’ blackberry. Your house probably wouldn’t be in once piece if he was an ‘evil’ type and let loose for a month.

“So!” Mama Nina clapped her hands, you saw the poor Blackberry jump in the carrier and instinctively reach forward to rub the thick plastic right by his head. “I’ll go get the paperwork and we’ll get you set up!”

“What?” But she didn’t hear you because she was already hopping down the hallway to one of her offices.

You hesitated. ‘Paperwork’? Mentally running through the options, you could only assume she meant the adoption forms, but wasn’t there a protocol for this? Didn’t you AND the bitty have to agree to adopt? You knelt down to be eye level with the little guy again, he had finished his candy and was playing with the hem of his hoodie.

His blue hood was still up, like he wasn’t fully comfortable being out of hiding, his black sorts reminded you of basketball shorts and bore two yellow strips. His skull was black, but his forearms and lower legs were red with yellow bones at the major joints. At one quick look, he just looked like a mess. He certainly didn’t look like any of the other bitties.

But…

You felt something in your heart twinge at the sight of him so unhappy. Ya, he had really messed up your house for a month as he played tricks on you and never showed himself. You had clearly considered yourself slightly crazy, if it weren’t for the fact that those pranks left physical evidence. Bruises, some cuts, there was a slice on your nose where you had walked right into a fishing line strung tight across a doorway.

Ya, he was a pain, but…

“Hey.” You say gently.

His little red and yellow eyes look up to you then look away, though he cocks his head to let you know he’s still listening.

“Why did you hide around my house for a month? Didn’t you have somewhere to go? A home?”

He turned to look at you again, eyes shining like he was trying to explain something with just his gaze.

You frowned. “Do you have a home?”

He moved to sit on his knees and nodded.

“You do? Where? Can I take you back to your home?”

He shook his head furiously, but the look on his face told him that you didn’t understand something.

“What’s wrong? Do you not know where your home is?”

Again he shook his head, looking a little frustrated.

You huffed. “I wish you would talk to me, we could sort things out faster that way.”

The little skeleton jumped to his feet, stomping on in slight anger and jabbed a finger against the plastic carrier.

“What?”

He frowned and blushed then looked off to the side and mumbled something. You heard the very low rumble of his voice, but couldn’t catch what he said.

“What was that?”

He faced you, eyes fierce “Home!” Then jabbed at the plastic again. His voice had a weird fluctuation to it, like a song that suddenly skipped tracks and went higher in pitch.

“Home?” You mimicked the motion of his jabbing, trying to put two and two together.

His face flushed bright blue, shaking his head angrily and stomping a foot again. When he looked up again, he had bright blue magic tears building in the corners of his eyes that just broke your heart.

“H-home!” and he pointed at you.

You felt your blood run cold, realizing what he was saying.

He considered _you _his home, his family!__

____

Tears pricked your own eyes as confusion, fear, joy, and unconditional love just rushed through your heart at his declaration.

____

“So you..you want to go home with me?”

____

He nodded, a tear slipping free and dripping onto his hoodie.

____

“Of course he would.” You looked up to see Mama Nina standing at the mouth of the hallway. “Blackberries are made from the magic of a human soul. He’s literally a part of you.”

____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't had a chance to see all the Bitty Bones out there. Let me know if there's something already called a Blackberry and I'll change it.


	3. Ace of Spades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to fill out that adoption form

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for all the kudos and comments everyone! I'm starting to develop a plot for this, but the first few chapters might be tedious and slow.

Your little Blackberry was finally content enough to just sit on top of the table in the backroom, right in front of you, and snack on the muffin and sandwiches that Mama Nina had brought you. The back office room was reserved to adoptions, so visitors and adopters wouldn’t potentially effect one another’s choices.

A pair of new guests had come in, pulling Mama Nina away for a moment and giving you a chance to look through the adoption forms. Occasionally, you would catch sight of a curious little bitty walking through the hallway and peer inside. At one point a Baby Blue stopped by to congratulate your little bitty on being adopted, but the Blackberry never answered or acknowledged him. Instead he had turned away, still in the carrier at the time, and hid behind the now bagged icepack.

You smiled at the Blue and waved, but he eventually left you alone to go back to reading. After a few minutes of silence, your bitty had teleported out of the open carrier, grabbed a piece of muffin, and slowly started scooting closer to you.

You smiled down at your silly little bitty and rubbed his head through the hoodie. He squeaked at the sudden contact but didn’t pull away or smack your hand. You leaned back, resting your hand by him, and looked around the office.

On one wall was a picture of Mama Cry, the founder of the Bitty Adoption Centers and leader of several bitty activist groups. She had been the one to make sure bitties were treated properly, gaining the title of 'companions’ rather than ‘pets’, and always pushed for better rights for the bitty families.

Bitties had only been around for little less than eight years, but with Mama Cry’s determination, they had a pretty secure life with their families. Sure, there were still some problems, but what wasn’t without an evil side in this world?

On another wall was a large poster, baring pictures and names of dozens of bitties. At first they were sorted by Sans-types, Papyrus-types, Grillby’s, and so on, but as the list continued, it started to include some of the newer bitties that had been discovered after the first year or two. It didn’t look like the Blackberries had been added to this series of informative posters though.

Next to the poster were pamphlet racks holding more information on the bitties in the poster. The pamphlets were arranged to match the order of the pictures on the poster, leaving three or four racks empty for information cards on the town and special bitty services.

You stood to grab one of these cards, picking one of the ‘Bitty Services Around Town!’ cards and a “Life and Health of a Bitty” card. From the table you could hear the crinkle of paper and turned to see your bitty folding the adoption forms into paper planes.

“We still need to sign those, silly.”

He paused a moment, looking at you, before pressing down one last fold and lifting it up. You smiled as he stood and aimed at you, readying yourself to catch the form in mid-air. He launches it at you, sending it flying straight for your arm. You raise your hand to catch it, only to be surprised when it abruptly turned and flew into the hallway.

“Huh?” You wonder. The paper plane drifts a bit further before nose-diving into the tiled floor next to another doorway.

“How did you do that?” You ask. The little Blackberry just grinned wide and turned to fold another paper plane.

You give a slight frown in confusion but step into the hall to retrieve the paper. Outside of your room, you heard some of the bitties shouting in the play area, cheering and laughing along with one of the other visitors. Turning, you start to unfold the adoption form when you notice the table is empty.

“Little bitty?” You look around and frown. He really needed a name. “Hello? Where did you go?”

You checked under the table, on all four chairs, the shelves, the pictures on the wall, and the pamphlet display but you couldn’t find him.

“Hey! Little Blackberry? Come here little man, we’ve got this paperwork to do.”

“Something wrong?” Mama Nina is standing in the doorway giving you a slightly concerned look.

“My Blackberry just vanished.”

You watch as her brows furrow together and she skims the room around you. “He just left?”

“Yes, I turned away for a moment and he wasn’t there anymore when I turned back.”

Mama Nina opened her mouth to give an answer when someone else down the hall gave a startled, high-pitched yelp. Together, the two of you turn to peek down the hall and see a woman rubbing a her eye, a paper plane at her feet.

Your surprised and make your way to the woman.

“Hey, you alright?”

“Ugh, ya” she answers and bends down to pick up the plane. “Thing just flew into my eye though.”

You take the plane from her, recognizing it as the second page of the adoption form.

“Hey,” You turn your head around, “Little Blackberry. I know you threw this, why don’t you come to me and we’ll finish the forms, okay?”

All you hear is a deep chuckle in the air, laced with a static-like sound and echoing into the silence. Goosebumps rise on your arms at the sound and you can’t help but laugh a little. Damn he had an amazing evil laugh.

The woman beside you doesn’t seem impressed though. “What was that?” She asks, eye still red and not opening all the way, and she slowly reached out to you.

“Oh, um, don’t be scared. That’s my bitty. He, uh, like to play around.” Then you raise your voice, speaking to your hiding bitty, “He just doesn’t know when to play and when to _listen_.”

Another paper plane comes from Mama Nina’s office to your left, carefully directed to hit you in the face. You dodge it easily, though it does that weird sudden curve and jabs you in the ear.

“Ah.” Rubbing your ear, you walk into Mama Nina’s office with Mama Nina following behind you and see your little bitty sit on top of the bookshelf. You’re just relieved that you can see him again.

“Are you ready to head home?” Mama Nina asks him. Your bitty is sitting on the edge of the top of the bookshelf, kicking his bare feet back and forth and distinctly not making eye contact with you or Nina.

“I’ll fill out the forms real quick and head home. He’s probably a little restless.” Nina nodded in understanding and retrieved another adoption form from a file drawer next to the bookshelf. You take a seat at her desk and set to work filling out the blank spots.

You eventually get to the blank space you hadn’t found an answer for yet: ‘Bitty’s Name’. You look up at your bitty and see that he’s not on the bookshelf anymore. You sit up straighter and look around the room.

“Mm!” there’s a tug at your sleeve.

You whip around to see your little Blackberry chewing on a piece of cookie and standing next to your arm. Relaxing, you reach over and gently rub his head and smile at him.

“You’re like a little ninja, you know that?”

He just stares up at you, raising on eye ridge and chewing his cookie piece.

“Did you know there are cards in your hair?”

You jump at the sound of Mama Nina behind you, but turn to look up at her in confusion. She reaches forward and plucks a black ace of spades from the top of your head and hands it to you. You take the card and look back at your bitty. He grins wide and shrugs his shoulders.

You start fanning him with the playing card, laughing when he ducks behind your elbow to hide from the slight breeze. Returning to the adoption form, you fill in the last blank spot with an exaggerated flourish.

‘Bitty’s name: Spades’

 -------

Bonus: The picture added to your adoption form

 [Chaotic Good Blackberry](http://fav.me/dbinntw)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, just a reminder that I work on this story on the side. I have multiple other projects that I am working on but won't upload until they are done. This is because they are bigger and I want a regular upload schedule for them.


	4. Shop 'til you drop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gotta get some basics for your bitty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much again! I don't think I could ever thank you guys enough for the love you've given this story. I love that you guys find it adorable! <3

After the paperwork was completed, Mama Nina took a picture of you and Spades for her records and stapled everything together, locking them away in her filing cabinets in the furthest back office. You thanked her for her help and returned the carrier to her, trusting Spades to stay with you on the way home. Mama Nina stepped up and handed you some slips of paper.

“What are these?” You ask. They looked to be something like coupons, one holding a good amount of monetary value, and one with her email information.

“They’re your starting package. Just head next door to Tiny Tina’s Boutique and pick out a few new clothes for Spades.” She tapped the paper with a dollar amount. “This will help you pay for some starter things. You can also grab housing items like towels and bathtubs. After that, just head up the street to the Monster Clinic and ask for Dr. Olissen. He’ll do a standard check-up for your bitty and make sure he’s in good health. This way Spades will have a baseline should he get sick or anything.”

“Do bitties get sick?” You worried.

Mama Nina chuckled and waved her hand, dispelling your worries. “Of course they do, just like everyone else, but don’t worry too much about it. Typically a piece of Monster Candy and fix them right up.”

You sigh and relax, then motion to the third slip of paper.

“Since Blackberries are so rare still, I was wondering if you could send me occasional updates on your bitty? I’ll keep everything secret and sealed away, but would it be okay to make a report for the next Bitty Convention?”

“Oh, uh.” You look down to your bitty, now testing his balance on your forearm and bracing a hand against your chest. You watch him a moment, see the way his legs shake without muscles but watch as he still manages to keep balance. Then, he abruptly jumps off your arm, posing like a bungie jumper with their legs together, arms out, and before you can react, he blips away and lands on your head.

You and Nina look at each other a moment, surprised, then bust out laughing. You agree to send her some emails and head out of the adoption center still laughing.

The boutique shop had an electronic doorbell that activated when you entered, singing a sweet little tune over the store speakers. You could still feel Spades resting on your head, but once inside, you felt his small weight disappear.

“Be good! Don’t make a mess!” You called after him.

A human saleswoman made her way up, smiling gently and searching your hands for a carrier.

“Spades ran off to find some clothes.” You answered her confused look. She laughed and nodded in understanding.

“I’m sure they will find something.” She had an accent, something European and soft.

You nod and scoop up a shopping basket.

“I’m Marie,” she said, rolling the ‘r’, “Please let me know if there is anything that you need help with.”

You nod, a question ready, when a weight appeared in your basket. Looking down, you see little Spades dropping off a handful of clothing, more hoodies it looks like, before disappearing again.

“Ah,” You laugh “Where are the household items? I better grab some things before he ends up with only clothes.”

Marie chuckled with you and led you to a separate room just to the right of the clothes section. She left you to shop in peace and you slowly made your way through, picking up a bitty-sized bath tub with a curtain, tiny towels in blue and black, and some tiny dinnerware. There was so much more to choose from, but you hoped you had the basic necessities.

The weight on your arm increases as Spades popped back into the basket and you quickly turned to ask him something.

“Are you just getting hoodies? What about some pants or pajamas?”

He looked up at you, sticking out a little blue tongue and popping away again.

“Hey!” You called into the clothing section. You started searching for him in a row of hoodies displayed on tiny racks, hoping to catch him scrounging around. Sometimes you would catch a glimpse of him, but he would disappear before you could really lock eyes on him.

Sighing in mild annoyance, you turn instead to the racks of pants and shorts, picking out clothes that matched most of the hoodies he had picked. Soon you had a small pile of matching clothing with a few extras and three pairs of shoes that were labeled for Sans-bitties in a size that matched his height. Spades hadn’t popped back into the basket while you had chosen his pants and shoes, so you took a moment to look around again.

You were in the shoe section now, along with another bitty owner and their little Grillbitty. They were looking over some very crisp suits and chatting about which ones would be best for an upcoming party night.

Your little Spades, once you found him, was sitting on top of a shelf that held equal parts human books and bitty-sized books, staring at the other people in the shop.

You glance between the other shoppers and your bitty, wondering why he was hiding away. Slowly you made your way to stand in front of the display and looked up at him. His bare feet were swinging back and forth again, elbows on his knees and hands cupping his jaw. He didn’t even spare a glance at you.

“Hey.” You say gently. He doesn’t answer, but you felt like he was listening anyway. “Did you want to get a nice suit?”

That got a reaction from him. He snapped his eyes to you, frowning deeply and shaking his head. You laughed at the sight but nodded accent to him. “Okay, okay. I found you some shoes, socks, pants, and shorts. Maybe we can grab some pajamas for you and head out? Unless there’s something else that you wanted?”

Spades hesitated a moment before nodding and pushing from the shelf. You let out a startled yelp, lunging forward to catch him in your hands before he fell to the floor.

“Little man!” You exhaled. “Don’t do that, you scared the crap out of me.”

He was looking up at you, laughing happily at your reaction, and laid back to rest against your fingers. You smirked and teased him by flexing your fingers back and forth, causing him to bounce a little. He pouted at your retaliation but stayed in your hand as you turned find the night clothing.

Spying them nearby, Spades sat up straighter and disappeared again, leaving you to pick out pajamas for him. You settled for a blue set with white bones on them and a second set that were solid black with a yellow bone on the shirt and stripes on the pants. You tossed them into the basket and walked up by the checkout counter and waited for your bitty to return.

“Did you find everything okay?” It was Marie, making her way back up front.

“Yes, thank you. I’m just waiting on him to find whatever it is that he wanted to grab before we left.”

Marie nodded. “I can start ringing you out now and add his last item when he shows up.”

“Okay.” You lay out the various items, careful to check over what was chosen in case Spades snuck something in there you didn’t notice.

As Marie checked the tag to the last shirt, Spades appeared on the counter right in front of you and threw a stuffed teddy bear at Marie. You and the woman shared a brief look at the bear, before Spades turned and buried his face in your shirt, hiding how blue his face was.

Your heart melted at him, looking up to Marie with wide, happy eyes and cuddling him close. Marie silently chuckled at the interaction and rung up the bear, popping the tag from it and placing it into the bag.

With a hand still cupped around Spades, you fished the coupons from the adoption center from your pockets and handed them to the woman. She punched in a series of information, stamped the coupon with a red date stamp and a blue sales stamp before stapling your receipt to it.

“There’s still some money on this coupon if you find out you missed anything.” She handed you the coupon back with a smile and waited for you to put it away before handing you the bag. “Have a wonderful day!”

You thanked her with a big smile and scooped your bitty into your hand. He let out a little squeak at the move but made sure to keep his face hidden until you were outside. Halfway up the street to the Monster Clinic, Spades pulled on your shirt and motioned that he wanted on your shoulder.

You obliged your bitty and set into a smooth walk to make sure he stayed safe. Together, you walk up the street and pause in front of the clean white building on the corner and watch the shadowed silhouettes of the monsters inside mill about.

“Okay,” you start “Spades, you can’t run around in the clinic. There are a lot of rooms guests aren’t allowed in and a lot of stuff you can’t touch. Just try to stay with me, alright?”

You little bitty doesn’t give an answer, his weight on your shoulder doesn’t even shift. You turn to look at him, “Ya got it? Stay with me.” He meets your gaze and nods, but you see something shining in his eyes.

Deciding not to question it, you push the door open and head to the check-in counter. Spades is still on your shoulder when you ask the nice lizard monster to see Dr. Ollisen and hand them the slip from Mama Nina. You’re told to fill out a sheet of information and given a clip board and pen. You take it, nearly dropping it when Spades decided he wanted to stand on the board, and find an empty chair.

As you start filling out the basic information, Spades is watching your hand as you write and keeps poking the tip, causing weird squiggles in the middle of words.

“What are you doing, silly?” He looks up at you with curiosity in his eyes then tugs at the pen like he wanted to hold it. “Let me finish this paper and I’ll let you have the pen, okay?” He nods happily, choosing to stand by your hand and gently hold the pen as you finish.

Underneath the clinical form was some sheets with common questions that you turn over to give Spades a blank sheet. You hand him the pen and set the clip board on the seat for him as you take everything up front again.

You’re given a short wait time and rejoin Spades in the chairs. He’s busy making scribbles on the paper, hunching a little because the pen is slightly smaller than he is. You recognize some of the lines as an upside-down heart, the monster symbol for monster souls. There’s several loops on the page followed by some sudden jagged lines. One of the jagged lines cuts through a right-side-up heart and you wonder what he could be doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to end this one here just because it started to get so long. I try to keep each chapter 3 pages at minimum.


	5. What's in a Bitty?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You take Spades to the doctor for a check-up and learn a bit more about Blackberries

When you’re finally called to a room in the clinic, you ask the receptionist if you can take the clipboard for your bitty. To Spades displeasure, you have to return it and the pen, but manage to keep his doodles. You fold them and stuff them away in your shopping bag, and follow a green fire-elemental monster. He’s a little taller than you, with spots of orange flickering in and out through his form, and his hand doesn’t burn when he greets you as Dr. Ollisen.

In the tiny exam room, Spades is asked some simple questions about his magic, what he likes and dislikes, favorite foods, and bed routines. You can’t answer most of the questions, you explain, because you’ve just found him yesterday, and Spades continues to be mostly silent when anything is directed at him. For the final check-up, Dr. Ollisen uses his green healing magic to check Spades’ vitals, deeming him healthy and ready to head home.

“Do you have any questions?” The doctor asks as he extinguishes the last of his magic. Spades is more than happy to teleport back to you from the exam chair, promptly sitting on your shoulder and trying to hide behind your ear.

“Mama Nina said that Blackberries are made of magic and energy? Specifically, the magic from a human soul, how does that work?”

 Dr. Ollisen nods, taking a seat across from you. “Nina and I actually attend the Bitty Conventions together, she studies the social aspects of the little monsters while I study more of the magic and biology of them. There still isn’t much that is certain about Blackberries yet, but there are two prominent theories about them right now. The first thing you have to understand is magic works almost like water in osmosis.”

“Really? So it tries to stay balanced?”

He nods, “Right. When you eat any foods that increase your magic within your soul or within a monster’s body, eventually the magic outside the body dilutes the magic inside the body, bringing it back down to a more equal state. Naturally everyone needs a bit more magic than what is offered in the air to keep their energy up. It’s a slow process to dilute magic, but that’s why monster foods are so heavy in magical properties. Humans can still lose and gain magic within their souls, but with your more physical properties, it just takes a bit longer.

Now, the first theory for Blackberries states that some of this magic that is slowly trickling out of the human soul doesn’t properly dilute, like it collects together with the free magic and, because of this, is somehow able to mix with the free energy particles in the air. The magic, the human essence, and the energy then create a bitty that is both physically and magically different than other bitties.”

You nod, fascinated, and feel Spades start to slip from your shoulder. You straighten and turn to him, prepared to catch him, when he yanks your ear to steady himself and grabs a fistful of hair to climb back up. Dr. Ollisen just smiles at the both of you until Spades is seated back safely on your shoulder. Your little bitty gently smacks your cheek, as if to say ‘hey, I’m still here, pay attention’.

You turn to give Dr. Ollisen an exasperated look but tell him to continue. The doctor chuckles a little and straightens back up. “The second theory is that some of what makes a human unique, like their personality, leaks out with the magic, then mixes with the free energy particles. So more of magic, emotions or determination, and energy mixing. We’re still not quite sure, but those are the best theories for now.”

“So, is it the type of magic from the human souls that determine if a Blackberry is good, neutral, or evil?”

“Oh no, we actually know that one. The energy particles in the air hold charges depending on the weather, location, nearby objects, and everything else. Depending on if the cluster of energy has a positive, neutral, or negative charge affects the Blackberry’s personality swing.”

You frown a bit, “Then how to some criminals end up with a chaotic evil Blackberry instead of a random chaotic good Blackberry?”

“Hm, that is a good question. I’ll have to see if there’s any correlations with that. I’m sure you know that magic, energy, and souls are just unpredictable sometimes.”

You sigh and agree, laughing with the fire-elemental before thanking him and heading home.

 

 

Spades is starting to feel a bit heavier on your shoulder by the time you make it home to unlock your door. You mentally curse yourself for forgetting to get a bitty-sized bed and reach a hand up to gently life him from your shoulder.

“Hey, buddy, feeling tired?” He doesn’t answer, but you see his eyes are heavy. “Did you want to sleep on my bed? I forgot to grab you a bitty bed at the boutique, we’ll have to go back and grab one some time.” He’s still quiet, but rolls over in your hands to curl up and shut his eyes.

You push the door open and head inside, making your way to your room. Carefully, you deposit your bitty onto a pillow and yank the thin blanket up to cover him. He doesn’t stir, resting like a rock.

Heading back out, you start unpacking your shopping back and take a better look at the teddy bear. It’s as big as Spades, black with a red skeletal system painted on in meticulous detail, the eyes are white and it had sharp, pointed teeth.

“Ohmygawd it’s scary cute.” You set the bear aside and get to work removing tags from the clothes and shoes.

When you’re down, you toss the tags in the trash and scrape together the pile of clothes to toss in the laundry. Turning, you take three steps and-

“MROW!”

“Mara! Wait! No!” You drop the clothes and lunge for the cat. She dodges your attempt and lunges onto the back of the couch where Spades was breathing heavily. He’s able to teleport out of reach and onto the desk in the other corner. Without missing a beat, Mara dug her claws into the couch and launched herself in a new direction.

Forgetting the cat, you try instead to scoop up Spades before the cat can but you both reach the desk at the same time and he teleports away. You turn, searching for him, and try to deter the cat with your foot.

“Spades!” You call. You still can’t find him.

The cat meows at your feet and starts walking around, jumping at everything.

You leave her and start pacing your house, searching for any black or blue movement. You check behind books, under desks and tables, inside drawers, and inside light fixtures. You check the bedroom and hear something topple over onto the carpet. You look and see Spades hiding where a vase had been on your shelf.

“Spades!”

He’s looking over the edge of the shelf at where the vase is broken onto the floor, but you don’t care as you carefully cup your hands around him.

“Are you okay?”

He’s breathing heavily and his limbs are shaking beneath him as he rests on his hands and knees. There’s strange beads of slightly blue sweat rolling off his skull and he looks absolutely exhausted.

“Aw,” you scoop him up, “I’m so sorry. I forgot about the cat.”

You carry him with you carefully as you head to the living room and find the cat carrier. Mara is meowing by the desk that she last saw Spades on and doesn’t spare you a glance. You set the cage door open and shake her bag of treats.

“Here kitty, kitty.” She looks up, excited, but still interested in finding her prey.

“Hey,” you demand, “c’mere.” She meows but trots over. You shift to hold Spades in one hand and take a treat in the other. You tell the cat to get into her carrier and when she does, you give her the treat.

With the cat in the carrier, you call your friend to come over early to pick up her cat. She agrees, though it’ll be a little while longer than you’d like. As you hang up the phone, you look at Spades in your hand.

He’s sitting, but he’s definitely tired by the way his arms and legs just hang there. He’s slouched in your hand, looking over at the cat in her carrier.

“It’s okay, Spades. She won’t get you anymore, you can go back to sleep.” He doesn’t hesitate to lie in your hand as you carry him back to the bed. This time when you put him down and tuck him in, you make sure to close the door behind you, just in case.

Dusting off some cat hair on your pants, you continue with the laundry and set to work making some snacks for your friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, a plot is coming together and it might be a bit of a bumpy ride. So hold tight. 
> 
> also, some links for the meaning of Osmosis:  
> http://www.dictionary.com/browse/osmosis?s=t  
> https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/membranes-and-transport/diffusion-and-osmosis/v/osmosis


	6. Sour Fruit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spades takes a nap and then tries a new food

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so much trouble with this chapter. It was like pulling teeth.

Alexandria takes her cat home and returns to visit you an hour later. She’s more than excited to see your new Bittybones that you had just adopted. You’re quick to shush her with a chocolate lava cake you made earlier and tell her Spades is sleeping.

“’Spades’?” She asks around a bite of cake.

“He threw some playing cards into my hair at the adoption center, so I named him after one.”

“Awwwwwwww.” She coos long and loud.

“Shh!” You motion to your bedroom door.

“Oh right, right.” She does a ‘shoo’ing motion with her hand and doesn’t seem deterred from her excitement. “Maybe now that you have a Bitty, I can get one and we can have cute, little bitty playdates.”

You take a bite of your own cake, enjoying the strong chocolate flavor. “I don’t know. He’s a bit…” You wave a hand in the air, dessert fork doing lazy circles. “Rough? I guess. Give me time to really get to know him, before I give you a more solid answer.”

She’s pouting now. You watch as her green eyes go wide and she juts out her lower lip.

“Stop that.” You deadpan.

She lets out a breathy, full laugh, letting her joy go as quietly as she could manage. If you knew anything about your friend, it’s that she can’t hold back her laughter for too long. You slowly go to stand and motion for her to go outside on the front porch.

“Aww, is cake time over?”

“No, but I know you can be loud, so we’ll just move outside. Take the plates, I’ll bring some drinks.”

“Sweet!”

You flinched at how loud she was but try to let it go as you head back to the kitchen.

 

 

There’s a mug of hot black tea in one hand and a mug of hot chia tea in the other that you balance as you force the front door open. Alexandria is sitting at the small patio table to your left and it looks like she had finished her own cake and started snacking on yours.

“Thief!” You bark, laughing when you see her flinch. “Leave me my chocolate.” You pass her the Chia tea and take your seat next to her to finish your dessert.

“So,” You say around a bite of gooey chocolate “How’s work coming along?”

As predicted, she groans loud and throws her face into her hands. “UGH!”

“That bad?”

“I just _can’t_ deal with all these negotiations again! We can’t come to an agreement for nothing. The drivers want more, the company wants less, and we’re stuck in the middle trying not to die.”

“Maybe you should be a hostage negotiator instead?”

She gives you an exasperated glare and you respond with a raised brow and another bite of chocolate.

“Alright, smartass, how’s _your_ work going?”

You shrug. “Boring.”

“What?”

“What ‘what’? It’s boring. There aren’t any new projects coming through right now, we’re just running the last two series for the summer and still laying out the designs for winter series.”

“What about fall?”

You smiled wide. “Already done.”

“What?!”

This time you where the one who laughed out loud.

“The deadlines were next week.” A sip of black tea. “Management has a few modifications that they want changed, but then we send the first set out to print and get preparations started for the events.”

“I hate you. You and your stupid work.”

“Hey, I deal with deadlines and large projects, _you’re_ the one that deals with people.”

“People suck.” She whines.

Cake finished, you pull your mug closer as Alexandria takes a moment to bury her face into her arms on the table. Outside your house, there was a thin layer of trees and a length of bare yard before reaching the street. You had contemplated starting a garden along the front of your patio, but had yet to do it. You supposed it was time to start researching plants and flowers that would work together all year round.

“Hey!” Alexandria pops her head back up, woes forgotten. “Did you hear about the Ebbot City council?”

“Huh, no?”

“They’re asking for foster cities! How cool is that! We should volunteer!”

“Where have you been? They asked for foster cities a month ago.”

A light pink blush spreads across her umber skin and she looks abashed.

“Dude, you really need to get a television. Or start reading the paper.”

“Hey! You said it yourself, I deal with people. People are my news sources.”

“Gossipmongers.”

She just sticks her tongue out at you.

“You’re hardly ever home anyway, why not just move into my spare room?”

“Uh, no.” She sighs. “You’re too far from the night life for me. I need to walk to my nightly parties.” She starts dancing in her chair as if to emphasis her point. “Speaking of! I need to go get ready for clubbing with Josie and Morgan.”

She stands quickly, knocking the table with her hip. You watch, uncaring, as her mug tips over and spills the last of her tea through the woven wires of the table and onto the patio wood.

“Just be quiet when you head inside, okay?”

“Pish Posh.”

 

 

You just finished washing the dessert plates and cups when you heard a thump in the living room. Bringing the dish towel with you, you search for the source of the sound.

“Hey, Spades.” He flinches on the bookshelf, book still in hand. “Throwing books off the shelves for a reason?”

He sticks out his tongue and tosses the book in his hands onto the floor before jumping on top of the fallen stack. You watch somewhat amused, as he tries to drag, then push, the stack of four books across the carpeted floor before giving up and pulling a single book free. He doesn’t get very far, just at the base of couch, before disappearing and reappearing on top of the cushions.

“Need help?” You finally offer. He sends a glare at you and summons a stream of blue magic to his right hand.

Curiosity peaked, you step forward to get a better look at what he’s doing. He extends the magic from his hand like a fishing line, to the book on the floor and gives it a sharp yank upward. The book jumps up from the floor and plops onto the couch just beside your bitty.

“Oh,” You eye the magic as it dissipates “Cool.” He gives you a smug smile in return.

From the kitchen, your phone chimes a sickly-sweet song associated with Alexandria’s text messages. You toss the towel onto the sink rim and snatch up your phone, seeing a preview of her text. It’s telling you ‘get ready…’ and you flip open the message to read the rest.

-get ready for another boycott-

You groan.

You relied on the public transportation system to get around town just because it was there, free, and very reliable. You had a small sports car in your garage and you had your license, but the buses, trains, and subways were a lot more convenient than the public roads.

You text back ‘-damn you-‘ and toss your phone away.

“Hey Spades, do you like fish and chips?”

 

 

Turns out he did not. Well, he didn’t like the flounder. You had taken the rest of his fish while he snatched the rest of your homemade fries. He had tried them dipped in ketchup, mustard, horseradish, and barbecue sauce before settling for eating them plain.

You rung the last slice of lemon onto the remaining fish, suck on the slice, and finished off the protein. As you collected Spades plate and the little sauce dishes, you notice Spades staring at you.

“What?”

He jumped up and tugged on your wrist and pointed at the plate in your hand.

 “You want the plate?”

You lowered the empty plate to the table again, watching as Spades scooped up one of the discarded lemon slices.

“It’s a lemon slice. To season the fish.”

He blinked once, twice, and chomped onto the lemon peel.

It was like his face slowly melted before scrunching in disgust and spitting it out.

“You-you weren’t supposed to eat the peel!” You're laughing as you pick up the discarded rind and return it to the plate. Dumping the excess into the trash and the dishes into the sink, you slice a fresh piece of lemon for Spades to try.

“Here,” you’re still chuckling. “Try a fresh piece.”

Spades leans away from the offered piece like it’s going to snap at him and sticks his tiny blue tongue out.

“It’s fine. Watch.” You break the piece in half and make sure to take a bite of the pulp. You fight against the reaction to scrunch your own face at the sharp, sour flavor in an attempt to encourage Spades.

“See?” You’re smacking your lips together as you offer him the other piece.

He hesitates, red and yellow eyes flicking between you and the lemon piece, before he carefully takes and sniffs it.

You watch patiently, careful to keep your face innocent and blank. He lifts the piece up and takes a bite of the pulp, far away from the rind.

It was like watching an instant replay. His blank face sagged into a frown before scrunching into a look of sour disgust. He threw the piece at you, hitting your shirt, and swiped a fry to quickly eat away the sour flavor.

You laughed the whole time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to leave prompts and suggestions in the comments. 
> 
> Thank you guys so much for helping me with this! I couldn't have continued the story without you guys!


	7. Just around the house

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spades wants to know about you, bath time and a morning call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for all the love this story is getting. 
> 
> Here's a longer chapter for you guys, I really had some things to explain/set up with this chapter

 Spades returns to reading one of your old biology books from college on the couch after dinner. It’s late night on Saturday, a night you usually spend with Alexandria or Morgan. For a moment, you consider joining them for the night in their club hopping, just falling into that habit, but…you have Spades now.

You hum to yourself, unsure what to do.

He skipped through most of the first chapters and settled onto the chapter on the skeletal system. It seemed…rather…ironic.

“What’cha reading, little man?”

He looks up at you, then the book, then flips three pages to the full length skeletal system inside a gray silhouette of the human body.

“Bones?”

“That’s the human skeletal system. We have bones under all this flesh.” You motion to your torso. Stepping forward, you lean onto the back of the couch and stare at the book over him.

“Flesh?”

You nod, “Ya, there’s 11 total systems that make up the human body, but the basic ones are the skeletal, muscular, and integumentary systems.  The integumentary system is the skin.” You gently pinch the flesh of your forearm.

Spades looks a mix of intrigued and confused as he hops over to the back of the couch and holds up his hands, making ‘grabby’ motions. You carefully lower your arm down to him and let him get a good look at your skin. First, he mimics your pinching motion between both his tiny hands, pinching softly, then a little harder.

“Careful, it hurts if you pinch too hard.”

He jumps and looks scared. “Hurts?”

“It’s okay, you didn’t hurt me. If you pinched any harder it may have hurt a little.”

He looks at your arm in front of him again. “Hurts.” Like he’s testing the word. He pushes your skin, watching as it moves around then slaps it gently. Abruptly he turns and jumps back to the book, tugging the page with the skeleton on it. “Can see bones?”

You shake your head. “Nope. Human bones are the support system to the body. If you ever see a human bone, it’s usually not good because the person has gotten really hurt. We have special, uh, cameras in hospitals to see the bones without hurting anyone, but you can’t really see them in real life. You can,” you roll your arm over to show Spades your knuckles, “feel them through the flesh and muscle in some areas. Like here, in the fingers.” You rub your thumb knuckle, then the pad of fat on your palm.

“Our hands are a delicate weave of muscles, fat, and bones all at various thicknesses.”

Spades jumps back to you and grabs your hand, he’s so small that he can fit into your hands but he seems to be a little taller than your hand is long. He presses on a knuckle, then on the muscle and fat on your palm. He takes his time gently pressing, pinching, and rubbing all over your hand and fingers. Occasionally he’ll reach up higher and pinch at your wrist and arm.

When he’s done with your hand, he releases it and holds his arms out to you.

“See head?”

“My head?” You scoop him up and hold him in front of your face.

He’s more than happy to lean forward and start poking and pinching your cheeks, lips, nose, chin, and anything else he can touch. You’re relaxed for him to get a good feel for everything, but weren’t prepared for his hand to suddenly brush too close to your eye.

Your instincts are to jerk back and cover your eyes, but you try to control it enough to flinch and close your eyes instead.

“Careful, buddy. The human eye is very sensitive and we have unconscious instincts to protect them. Like closing our eyes and jerking away from perceived threats.”

When you blink and see him, he looks upset.

“ I just wanted to give you a heads-up about it, that’s all.”

Something bright blue like his magic starts to build up in the bottom of his dark sockets. “Threat?”

“Ya, anything that gets too close to our eyes, our brain freaks out about it.”

Oh no, that blue stuff was tears.

“Hey, it’s okay!” You cup him close to your cheek. “It’s okay, you didn’t do anything wrong. I promise.”

“I-I’m bad?”

“No! No, you’re not. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. You’re not bad, you’re very cute and good. I promise.”

You feel him startle against your cheek and pull back enough to see the surprised shock on his face.

“What, what’s wrong?”

A bright blush dusts his black cheek bones and he doesn’t answer.

“Are you embarrassed?”

The blush darkens and he tries to put on a tough face.

You laugh, a tease in your voice. “Because I called you cute?”

His face is practically blue now.

“Aw!” You coo and laugh. “My bitty boy is so cute and adorable and shy.”

He lets out an embarrassed whine and pulls his hood up to cover his face and buries his chin into the collar of the hoodie. You can help but laugh and kiss his covered head before snuggling him into your neck.

 

 

An hour before bed, you gather up Spades’ new bath materials and scoop up your bitty to take to the bathroom. The master bathroom isn’t too big, just enough for a double vanity, toilet, and a shower/tub combination.  Its colors are a gentle tawny, or light brownish-orange, with white porcelain that you accented with some plant greens or sky blues, depending on the time of year.

You place Spades and his items onto the extra space on the sink counter and set to work on the bitty shower.

“Shower time, my little man. I got this for you at the Boutique today and it’ll attach to the sink so you can control your own water temperature.”

He’s walking around the grey bitty shower and tub combination. It’s in a smooth ‘8’ shape with higher walls on three sides and a white curtain on the other. Over the top, you had attached the optional privacy glass set to a height a few inches taller than Spades.

With a final click to the sink faucet, you test it by turning the hot water, then the cold. The water runs through the tube attached to the bitty shower and gives a strong flow from the tub faucet. You flip the tiny handle above the faucet and watch as the water redirects through the shower head.

“Hey, there we go. Easy.” You scoot the tub closer to the wall behind the sink with enough room for Spades to walk around as needed. He walks up to play with the sink handles controlling the water temperature and you turn to fold and stack the towels. “Hm, I should probably check for some shelves for you next time we go shopping. Okay, what pajamas do you want?”

He turns to look at the clothes you had laid out on the counter; the blue set or the black set. You don’t wait to see his choice as you head back to your room and gather your own clothes. Returning to the bathroom, you undress and head for your own shower, hoping to give Spades some privacy of his own.

Ten minutes later, you’re showered, clean, and wrapped in a towel, as you step out to see Spades sitting on the edge of the sink. He pushes off the edge and slides down the slope of the bowl to lay on his back at the bottom. He’s still in his old clothes and his pajamas and towel look untouched even though the bitty shower is off.

“Did you not clean?” He sits up in the bottom of the sink and just looks back at you. “Do you know how to work the shower?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, so why didn’t you shower and change, silly?”

He looks away.

“Uh huh. Welp, guess I’ll just have to scrub you down then.”

“Huh?” He doesn’t look happy at that.

“Gotta get you all clean. Did you take a bath or anything during that month you were hiding around my house?” He tucks his chin to his chest but doesn’t answer. “I thought so.”

You turn to dress yourself and hear him trying to climb out of the sink behind you.

“Don’t wanna.” He pouts.

“You have to clean sometime Spades. What if you get sick or something? Can’t have you dirty forever.” Slipping your night shirt on, you roll the short sleeves up until they become thick straps on your shoulders. “So let’s go.”

You were not prepared for the squeak he emitted or the tent of white bones he conjured around him.

“Wha? Hey you. You can’t hide from bath time.” There’s a muffled ‘no!’ from the bones that you chuckle at. “What if I make it a bubble bath? Hm? That would make it more fun.”

You walk over to the sink and reach below the counter to take out one of the two bottles of bubble bath you have there. Reaching over his bone tent, you start the water to the bitty shower again and plug the tub. Just one drop of the bubble mixture is enough to turn the tub into a lavender scented, bubble volcano that spills onto the counter top.

Pausing a moment, you consider the water temperature with your wrist like you’ve seen mothers do for their babies. It feels a little cold for you, but would it be okay for him?

“Alright, I’ve got the bubbles in.” You try to lure him out.

His curiosity is piqued enough to dissipate one wall and poke his head out. You take this chance to scoop up some bubbles and plop them onto his head, laughing. He lifts his head to try and get a better look at the bubbles, but they slide off the back of his head and start to melt into the back of his hoodie.

“Gone?”

You chuckle. “Ya, they don’t stay forever. You better hurry into the bath before they’re gone too.”

He hesitates, looking between you and the bitty shower on the counter above him, before clearing the bones and teleporting next to the tub in one movement. He sticks a hand into the bubbles, reaching down to splash into the water beneath and prepares to step inside fully clothed.

“Hey, whoa, munchkin. You gotta take off the clothes first. You can’t get fully clean if you’re still dressed.”

He looks unhappy at the thought but steps away from the tub anyway, tugging at his hoodie.

“No look.” He pouts. You chuckle and shut your eyes and turn away from him.

There’s a few moments wear all you hear is shuffling and the clack of bones on the counter before you finally hear the water start to slosh around. You wait patiently for him to tell you to open your eyes, but the moments stretched to minutes as you continued to hear him playing in the tub.

“You ready to scrub, Spades?”

You hear him hum, something caught between a slight pout and actual contemplation. “Ya. Can look now.”

You turn back to him and grab one of his tiny wash cloths. It’s only half the size of his towels, and far bigger than you would associate with a wash cloth, but it was the smallest size they had at the boutique, so you would have to make due. Vaguely you considered just cutting them into smaller pieces, a thought you’d have to consider in depth later.

“I found some white tea and ginger soap for you. Let me know what you think.” You run the rag under the other faucet to get it wet and rub a corner of it in circles on the tan bar of soap.

You run the soapy cloth over his cheeks first, being careful around his eye sockets and then gently run over his nasal bone. He sneezes into the bubbles, blowing some up and onto his chin. You laugh and when he looks up confused, you just laugh harder.

You notice the mischief in his eyes too late and he splashes a mixture of water and soap at you, getting your shirt and forearm wet.

“Hey!” You laugh. To retaliate, you scrub at his head with the cloth, giving him a gentle noogie that creates more bubbles. He shrieks in laughter and swats at your hand.

You pull away from his head and gently cup his chin with your other hand, using the rag to wash along his jaw line. Following the curve around his jaw, you wash up by his temple, down to the back of his head and gently wash over his neck vertebrae.

He’s relaxing into the gentle touch now and when you motion for him to raise his left arm so you can start on that, he doesn’t protest. It’s when you’re cleaning between his radius and ulna that you run into something sticky.

“What did you get into?” You look closer at his arm while dipping the cloth into the water and suds again.

“Stuff.”

You give him an unamused look that he blushes at and starts trying to talk with his hands.

“Sticky and in kitchen. R‘member? Used with feathers found in other room.”

You look at him, trying to following along. Feathers? When did he-

Oh no.

“Honey? You used honey to make the feathers stick to me that one morning after breakfast?”

He smiled wide, nodding, perhaps happy that you remembered his prank.

You sighed, of course you remember that morning. The prank had made you late for work because you had to take another shower and clean the floor before any ants could get attracted to it.

“You’ve been covered in honey for over a week? How did you get anything done?” You started scrubbing at the honey between his bones again. He didn’t answer you, just splashed the other hand into the water and sent bubbles flying. After cleaning his hand, you switched to the other arm and saw spots of darker red on the black humerus and red ulna and radius. “What’s this?”

“Red!” He smiled.

“I can see that, but what was it from?”

He hummed a moment, then pointed at your shampoo on the shower shelves.

“Red food coloring? That you put in my shampoo that one time?” He nodded. “I was not prepared for the sudden change in my hair color, thank you.” You tease him back. “This stuff stains for a while, so we’ll have to wait for it to just fade out of your bones, okay? There’s not much we can do with it.”

You wash his arm and hand, moving to clean his ribs and back in soft, soothing motions while still managing to scrub out the other items he had been carrying around with him.

“Okay, feet please.” You hold out your fingers for him to rest them on, instead it looks like he slumps forward and rests his chin in your fingertips instead. “Spades?”

He hums against your fingers, eyes closed and looking like an overcooked noodle.

“Don’t fall asleep in the tub, silly.” But that did little to deter him.

Slowly, his weight increased on your hand as he was more than happy to just fall asleep naked, half submerged in water, and hunched over with is face in your hand.

“Hm, well, it just looks like I’ll have to clean the rest of you since you’re so tired. Guess I’ll just wash your little skele-butt next.”

Spades let out an embarrassed squeak, snatched the rag from one hand and shoved the other away while dragging the curtains closed.

You just stared in mild surprise at the white curtain.

Then busted out laughing, resting your head on the counter.

“Make s-sure you clean real good, unless you want another ba-ath tomorrow morning.”

There was a growl and splash of water behind the curtain, but otherwise he didn’t answer. Once you calm back down, you just rest your head in your hands, bent over the counter and eyes shut.

A few minutes slowly pass by before you hear the curtain open and the tub drain into the sink. You don’t open your eyes when you hear Spades step across the counter top to his towel and clothes. There was the sound of shuffling; Spades was probably having trouble with his new clothes because there was a distinct clattering sound for a moment where he probably fell over.

You smiled to yourself in silence, listening to him struggle, until the little patter of his feet stopped in front of you. You cracked open an eye and saw him staring down at you curiously.

“Ready for bed?” Aw, he was so cute in the black and yellow pajamas.

He nodded to you and you scooped him up into your hands from the counter. You turned off all the lights in the bathroom and bedroom before laying Spades on the pillow beside you and pulling back the blankets for yourself. As you settle into the pillows, you feel something above you and when you look, you spy Spades cuddling with his teddy bear right above your head.

You huff an amused laugh and fall asleep.

 

Today was Sunday.

_Sunday._

The one day you don’t set your alarm.

So someone tell your phone to fuck off.

Despite your groan of protest, you fling your arm from the comfort of the covers and slap it on the bedside stand. You continue to half-ass slap your hand around until you find the offending phone and tap the screen to answer the call.

“ ‘ello?”

A female voice laughs on the other side.

“Wha’ ‘ou wan’?” God, it feels like you were woken from a REM cycle.

“Sorry to wake you, but it is almost noon.”

That made you sit up in bed a bit faster, though you still felt groggy.

“Hn?” you turn to look at your alarm clock.

11:17

You deflate in your sitting position and groan into the phone.

“ ‘t’s not even ‘leven thrity.” You yawn wide. “Who is this? What d’ you need?”

“Wow, you are a difficult one to wake up. It’s Mama Nina, I need to talk with you about Spades.”

Abruptly, you sneeze and shake the whole bed. “Grah, sorry. Hoo.” You sniff. “I’m usually quicker to wake up, I think I was pulled from a REM cycle or something. Feel a bit heavy still.”

There’s a tiny sneeze beside you and you look over to see Spades laying upside-down on your pillow rubbing his eyes. You smile at him and reach around to rub his skull affectionately.

“So what’s up with Spades? Good things, I hope.”

“Oh yes yes. Everything is fine. It’s just that, now that he’s been, well, _found_ he’ll start to grow and develop more past his primary stage.”

“Primary stage?”

“Yes, it’s a self-preservation stage that all Bitties start with when they first appear. It’s not until they are caught and brought to the adoption center that they start to learn and adjust to society. Tell me, has he started talking?”

Your brow is furrowed in slight confusion but answer Nina’s question. “Ya, he does, like, short sentences and stuff. Still is quiet most of the time and points to what he wants but he’s got a good understanding of language.”

“Good good. That’s good, so he’s developing fast, which is normal. Typically, they do learn while in their primary stage of existence, but they don’t put it into practice until they start mingling with other Bitties. Or you, in this case.”

“Is that bad? That he’s not with other bitties, that is.”

 “Well, it is and it isn’t. He can learn and develop faster if there are other bitties around, that’s one of the reasons why everyone is encouraged to bring bitties that they find to the adoption centers in their area. It shouldn’t hurt Spades too much if he only interacts with you, but it might take longer for things to click for him.”

“So what do you recommend?”

“That’s why I called, actually. Would you be opposed to a few more bitties staying at your house for a few days?”

“My house? How many bitties exactly?”

“Well, I’ll be accompanying them since they aren’t technically adopted, but I have three or four that I think would work well with Spades. They aren’t aggressive or anything, rather they’re more of the helpful- or caring-type bitties. I know it’s rather sudden, but I think it would be best to have them over as soon as possible.”

Ugh, it’s too early for this type of immense thinking right now. “Uh, okay, hang on, let me think.”

You start writing in the air with your finger, trying to focus passed your pre-coffee haze. Today is Sunday, Nina says she needs to stay for a few days so that means she’ll be here during the work week. You have a room she can use, so that’s easy at least, you just need to go grocery shopping for more than one and a half people today. Um, guess that’s all to consider on your end of things.

“Hm, ya, it’s fine if you come over whenever you can. I’ll call in and use one of my vacation days for work tomorrow, then hopefully get things figured out more from there. Should be easy enough. I’ve got a spare room you can use while you’re here, but what about the bitties? Do they need somewhere special?”

“No, I’ll bring the stuff for them. Thank you so much for the room and I’m so sorry this was so sudden. I didn’t even think about it until I was looking over some reports on Blackberries last night.” Mama Nina let out a nervous laugh then sighed into the receiver. “Okay, well Sunday’s are our inventory days so I’ll be over after that’s done and taken care of. Your house is the address on file, right?”

“Yep, that’s the one.”

“Okay then, I’ll see you and Spades later tonight.”

“Got it. See you tonight then.”

You hung up the phone with a sigh and rolled your head back onto your shoulders. “Okay Spades, breakfast slash lunch time. We call it ‘brunch’.” You splay your fingers and make ‘jazz hands’ at him.

He just stares up at you, unamused.

“Okay!” You throw your legs off the bed and move to stand up. “What do you want? Eggs? Waffles? Fruit parfaits? Or would you prefer soup and salad or sandwiches?”

You stretch high, making sure to really extend your spine and shoulders before slowly bending forward and stretching your legs. There’s a sudden weight on your backside that slides down the arch created by your back and lands at the base of your skull.

“What are you doing, wise guy?” Slowly you straighten up just enough to be at a ninety-degree angle. Spades doesn’t move from his perch except to stay balanced. You smile and lean back to rest your butt on the bed again, then straighten up fully. “Oh no.” You tease

You feel Spades flail for only a moment before sliding down your back and landing back onto the bed.

Laughing, you turn to him and curl around him into a hug. He cuddles against your face to return the hug and then vanishes from you.

“Wher- hey!” Suddenly the covers are rising on both sides of you and you’re quickly wrapped up into the bedding. Spades’ low, glitched laughter fills the space outside of your cocoon as you huff and try to move. You kick your legs off the edge of the bed and rub your arms to slide out of the fabric but you’re thoroughly stuck for the time being.

With a huff, you go slack against the bed and succumb to your blanket-wrapped fate.

Then an idea crosses your mind and you smile in the semi darkness.

“Spades, if you knew what you wanted for brunch, all you had to do was tell me.”

You can’t feel his weight through the padding around you, but you do catch his confused ‘huh?’ just above your head.

Laughing, you start to roll your way to the end of the bed.

“Breakfast burritos it is!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts are always welcome and loved!
> 
> Have a beautiful day, lovelies <3


	8. Quick Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You go food shopping and pick up some work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter.  
> This chapter right here.  
> I'm not happy with it. I've been fighting with it for the past 3 months. Finally I had to sit down and just FINISH IT! Jeez.

“Spades, c’mon, we need to catch the bus.”

He pat his tiny fist against the window again, completely ignoring you.

“Spades…”

He spun to face you, looking like he wanted to argue something, but instead pointed outside.

You huffed, somewhat annoyed, but made your way from the front door, passed the kitchen and down the hallway to the back office with the patio doors.

“What?” It was less of a question and maybe more of a demand. Oops.

He didn’t notice.

“There!” He pointed.

“Where?”

“There!” He leaned forward too fast and knocked his forehead right into the glass door.

Uh….

“You okay?”

 

…..

 

“Spades?”

You blink and he’s gone.

‘ _Well damn.’_

Most likely you weren’t going to catch that bus in ten minutes, but you turned to search for him anyway. As you did so, you felt something heavy in the pocket of your light jacket and instinctively searched inside.

Ah.

Heaving a sigh, you rub his head gently and make your way back outside through the front door, locking it as you left. With your little bitty hiding away in your pocket, you had to shuffle the reusable bags, umbrella, and shopping list into the largest of the bags and sling it over your other shoulder as you jogged down the road. In the distance, you caught sight of the green and silver bus just as you slid from the grass to the sidewalk by the bus stop.

The first half of the bus ride is silent and uneventful. You greet the driver, who laughs and chats with you as you take the front-most seat. The rain starts to drizzle by the time you enter the shopping district in town before a sudden squall brings traffic to a halt.

“Did you want out at the next stop?” the driver asks.

You shake your head. “Not this time. I want to stay as dry as possible today.”

“Huh,” he chuckles, “that’s a first. Ya never sit around.”

“Is it really so strange? Maybe I just don’t feel like getting wet today?”

“Nah, _you_ don’t care ‘bout that. Even that one day it actually made you sick to walk in the sleet in the middle’a November.”

You let out a good-natured huff, and smile wide “Okay, you caught me. I have a friend today and he doesn’t have a jacket.”

“Friend?” You watch David search around your jacket and bags through the elongated rearview mirror. “You’re sitting alone there. Unless I’ve suddenly gone blind?”

“Nah, he’s hiding in my jacket pocket.”

He stares at you, the car in front of the bus honks in annoyance at the back-up in the intersection but he only gives it a cursory glance. “It’s not a mouse, is it?”

You raise a brow at him and a light dusting of red tints his already bright cheeks.

“I, uh, hate them little bastards.”

“Oh, uh. No, he’s a Bittybones-“

“You got a bitty?” Now he sits up straight, looking excited. “I’ve been lookin’ into them little guys. Which one did you get?”

“Actually, he chose me. Just showed up at my house and started causing havoc.” You dig into your jacket pocket and gently scoop up Spades’ sleeping form. He doesn’t stir as you pull him free of the fabric and step from your seat to give the driver a closer look.

There was an accident in the intersection, caused by the sudden onslaught of rain, and traffic hadn’t moved for the past ten minutes, so the driver throws the bus into park and turns in his seat. His grey work shirt looked too big for his frame, probably from when he lost weight, but something caught your eye as he leaned forward to see Spades.

“You have a tattoo?”

“Huh?”

You point at his chest where the shirt collar had fallen low enough to see the tip of a tattoo. “There. On your chest.”

The driver turned away from you and laughed, grasping his shirt to pull the collar closed. “Oh, you can see that? Oh jeez.”

“Bad story?” You can hear the disappointment in his tone.

“Something like that.” He looks back at you. “First wife.”

“Ouch.” He nods. “You going to get it filled in before the wedding? Has Lila already seen it?”

Spades stirs in your hands and you cup him closer to your chest with both hands in an effort to sooth him back to sleep.

“She ain’t seen it yet. Kinda nervous about it though. Don’t know how Monsters see tattoos.”

You hum. “Why not just ask? And get it filled in.”

There is a cacophony of honks behind the bus and you turn to see a van clip a truck and rear-end a second van. There’s the short screech of tires and crunching aluminum and plastic before only the sound of the falling rain was heard outside the bus.

The man beside you gave a hefty sigh and heaved himself from his seat with feigned difficulty.

“Whelp. Best get comfortable. Looks like we’ll be here a while.”

You nod and look to Spades.

He’s splayed out over both of your hands, one leg dangling by your wrists, his mouth hanging open, and an arm slung over his eye sockets. You chuckle and tilt your hands for David to see, who laughs loud enough for Spades to twitch in his sleep.

 

 

You had ended up taking a nap with Spades on the long metal bench-seat at the back of the bus and upon waking you and the driver were no longer the only people on the bus. Two monsters and the family of one of the vans were scattered around the parked vehicle.

The main accident in the intersection had finally been cleared and traffic was starting to ease up enough for the bus to squeeze down the street and make its way to the bus hub. David has turned off the marquee of bus stops on the digital screens at the front and center of the bus, changing it to ‘Sorry, Not In Service’. He takes the next left, a street not on his assign route, and drops the pair of Monsters off at an office building.

Two right turns later and you’re hopping off the bus and running for the grocery store as another squall passes through. Spades is hugging your hand tight in the pocket in his attempt at reducing the bounce from your longer gait.

Once inside, you flip off your hood and promptly try to shake yourself off.

“Grr, such cold rain today.”

“Rain.”

You nod at Spades and grab a cart, tossing your bags inside without a thought.

“Cold?”

You look to see Spades standing in the infant seat of the cart, holding onto the cart frame and looking at you.

“Me? Are you asking if I’m cold?” He nods. “Oh, no. I’m fine. How about you though? Are you cold? Or wet?”

He steps back and looks at himself, holding his arms out and kicking each foot in front of him. He has some darker splotches in his red hoodie where some droplets had hit him, but other than that, it looks like your jacket and hands had kept him pretty dry.

“Little wet. Not cold.” He eventually nods.

You hum a smile at him and proceed to make your way through the store. One step inside and the battle of Spades versus the world began. His first attack? Teleporting into the display of peaches and biting into one without a second thought. You had to scoop him, his peach, and a few more for yourself into a bag to continue on, scolding him along the way.

He made a face of blatant disgust when you grabbed a few lemons and tossed them into a bag, which he promptly tried to drop over the side of the cart and onto the display of potatoes. When you collected a bunch of carrots, he had grabbed one and tried swinging it around like a sword until he saw the garlic bulbs. You had to stop and breathe after your laughing fit that left poor Spades to find his own way to get rid of the garlic flavor.

Spades tried to jump onto the bread when you put it in the seat with him, so you tossed it in the very front of the cart. He then proceeded to jump from the cart onto a box of donuts and throw those into the cart as well before grabbing a bag of bagels.

“Slow down Spades, those aren’t even on the list.” He looks up at you in mild surprise, then proceeds to throw the bag into the cart with a wide grin.

Then he was gone.

“Son of a _buttercup_.” Grumbling beneath your breath, you continue shopping and searching for your bitty in the store.

Each time you would leave the cart and come back, there was something new in there. Sometimes they were a part of your shopping list, which was nice, other times it was random stuff. It became apparent quickly that he was grabbing a lot of boxed or bagged things, so you rushed to grab your fresh items on the list.

“Hey crazy!”

Dropping the bag of tomatoes into the cart, you spin around and shout back, “Sup my bish!”

The man making is way to you laughed and waved, dragging a young boy behind him while the kid was distracted with a PSP. The two, in true fashion, wore matching clothes; tan cargo pants with light blue plaid shirts and brown boots. The boy had a white, long-sleeve shirt on under his plaid shirt, a strange green stain on the left sleeve.

“Aw, what? No cursing?” the man teased.

“I’m not going to shout curse words through the store. There are kids and parents around here.”

The blonde scoffed. “Fuck’em,” you smacked his arm, “we’re adults, we make our own rules, bitch.”

“Okay, but here’s the other thing.” You grab his collar and yank him down to your eye level. “You’re the only one that can call me ‘bitch’, and if anyone else hears you calling me that, _they_ might think it’s okay. Then we’ll have problems.”

You let Michael pull from your grip as he stood up straight, grinning down at you and punching a fist into his hand. “Got that right. Bastards would be going down.”

A single tomato hit Michael’s temple, splattering some juice along his face and into one of his eyes.

“Ack!”

“Hey!”

You spun-

And found Spades.

“Spades. Where have you been?”

He ported from the cart to your head and promptly grabbed two fistfuls of your hair and pulled.

“Go.” He ordered.

“Uh…”

“Are you a horse now?”

You turned to face Michael, despite the way Spades’ yanking tried to pull you in a different direction. One of his green eyes was shut tight and there was still some tomato juice on his cheek, but otherwise he was clearly enjoying the sight.

“Maybe?” There was another sharp yank on your hair. “Spades, this is my friend Michael. Michael, this is my bittybones, Spades.”

Michael laughed and Nathan ‘ooo’ed just below you while you heard Spades grunt in annoyance.

“Hey Spa-“

“Can I hold him!?” Air was forced from your lungs as Nathan threw his full weight into your mid-section, grasping you tightly and smiling up at Spades. The force of the hug caused Spades to jerk forward on your head and yank harder on your hair, his tiny sneakers swinging down to kick you right in the nose.

“Owww”

“Nathan!” Michael chastised.

The child didn’t even hesitate as they lunged for Spades’ flailing feet, grabbing onto one and pulling hard.

“Hey!” You shout, ready to give the runt a stern talk-to, but Michael beat you to it.

Too fast, Nathan is pulled away from you, which momentarily sends Spades falling before you manage to catch him upside down and around his hips. Looking up, Michael has taken four steps away and is quickly and quietly giving Nathan one hell of a talk-to if his stiff posture was any indication.

“Are you okay, Spades?” You have him cradled into your left arm, head in the crook of your elbow and body pressed against your chest. He was rolling one of his ankles and rubbing the same knee roughly. “Anything broken? Are you okay?”

He looked up at you and scowled like he was disappointed but otherwise stayed silent. You gave him an annoyed look back and gently pushed aside his hand to pull his pant leg up enough to take a look at his knee and ankle.

Neither joint looked broken, but without muscles and tendons, you didn’t know what to look for as signs of strains or bruises on a skeleton-monster bitty. When you finally released his leg, Spades pulled it from your reach and fixed his pants before leaning forward and grabbing your hand to snuggle against it. You were more than happy to return the love with a kiss to his head.

“Weird.”

Looking up, there was Nathan standing before you, giving a slightly put-off look at the show of affection in front of him. Behind him, Michael reached up quickly and flicked Nathan on the back of his head.

“Hey!”

“Shuddup and apologize.”

“Why shou-“

“ _Nathan._ ”

The child stilled immediately and started grumbling under his breathe with a clearly displeased manner, never making eye contact with anyone around him.

“’m sorry.” He grumbled just above a whisper.

“For _what_ , Nathan.”

Nathan’s shoulders rose and his fists clenched but he took a deep breath with a frown on his face and finally looked up at you.

Actually it was more _in your direction_ but you guess it worked.

“I’m sorry I hurt your and your tiny monster thing. I-I..” he looked away again and stomped a foot. “I. Should not. Have g-g- _grabbed at him._ ” Grinding out the last of the sentence through clenched teeth, Nathan spun to face Michael. “There, I said it! Okay?!”

Michael smiled warmly at Nathan, showing an amazing mix of love, compassion, and pride that had you feeling like you had just witnessed something great.

Nathan must have felt the same way because his body relaxed and you saw a look of awed wonder in his eyes. When Michael’s hand lifted to pat his head, a blush formed across his tanned skin and he appeared so overwhelmed by the affection that he didn’t know what to do.

You met Michael’s gaze with a look of amazement and mouthed ‘you’re fuckin’ amazing’ to him. He then took this moment to give you his trademark shit-eating grin and a ‘got that right’ look.

You stuck out your tongue and left to finish shopping.

 

 

 

You were done with shopping.

Just. So. Done.

You never wanted to see another store ever in your life. Er, at least until next Sunday.

Shifting the grocery bags, Spades, and your work bag, you struggled to get comfortable on the long bus seat. The rain had been steadily falling since leaving the grocery store, leading to rather soggy clothes, food bags, and one tiny bitty.

Currently, said bitty was riding in a reusable grocery bag packed with boxed goods, giving a sturdy seat. His own clothes were dripping water onto his box seat, soaking the cardboard container and sagging just slightly. As if sensing your gaze, Spades turned to look up at you and cocked his head to the side, as if asking what you’re doing.

“You’re cute.” You admit. Spades’ black bones turn bright blue and his eye lights shrink in surprise before he literally dives into the next bag to hide behind the bread. You laugh loud enough to draw the driver’s gaze.

After a minute of cooing and coaxing your embarrassed Bitty, Spades is finally lounging on the bag of salty chips. With him in your sights again, you start digging through your workbag on your lap. While you had been waiting for Spades to reappear at the store you had called your work about getting tomorrow off for a vacation day.

Your department head was hesitant at first because a large influx of projects had come in over the weekend and everyone would be working the rest of the week to meet the short deadlines. It took some stern convincing and maybe some negotiations but you were able to stop by the office and grab a laptop to work from home.

Now, with another twenty-minute bus ride, you decided to read up on these projects that were due in five days. They were all flyers, brochures, or pamphlets; relatively easy layouts if the inquiring companies provided their own wording. Yael had demanded that the companies provide simple descriptions for the pages and captions for each picture, which is what you would be proofreading and editing the next two days.

Pulling free a rather thick manila envelope, you slipped out a random packet and started reading.

“ _Consider Oak Apartments!_ ” read the headline.

‘Huh,’ you paused ‘Didn’t Oak Apartments have a contract for new flyers twice a year? Their second set was completed with the list of Fall projects.’

Replacing the Oak Apartments packet, you yanked out two more.

“ _Beautiful Amory Meadow Condos”_ and “ _Beacon Real Estate: Here to help!”_

Housing? There had been a late of housing projects over the weekend? Considering that it was nearly the start of a new school year, it wouldn’t be surprising to see these flyers posted around town for the colleges but this was too last-minute for that. Everyone who wanted to advertise to the students should have already made their flyers and distributed them by now.

Also, the Beacon Real Estate guys weren’t usually one to advertise to students. You return the Amory Meadow paperwork and flip some pages into the Beacon details.

“ _Beautiful Starter Homes” “Spacious Rooms” “Financing Available” “Perfect for a Family”_

Then: “ _We will work with you the first month to help rebuild your home to fit your needs! Our Monster citizens are a valuable part of the Town of Twin Sisters’ community and we cannot wait to welcome you into the family!”_

‘’Welcome to the family’?’ You wondered.

Plucking one more packet from the envelope, you skimmed some passages:

“ _Unique water access!” “Perfect for Elemetal Monsters!” “Our resident Monsters recommend this floorplan!”_

.... 

Was your city preparing for more Monsters?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, Prompts and Ideas are always welcome.  
> My writing style might change in the upcoming chapters, but I need to figure out a way to write out this story in a way that 'flows' better for me.


	9. Guests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mama Nina comes over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got away from me. The characters had their own conversation and I was just along for the ride.....

A series of angled stripes stretched across the walls of the living room as you sat on the couch with the television on mute. The car that had just pulled into your driveway idled for a moment longer before shutting off and drowning your front yard in darkness again.

You stretched and placed the laptop onto the couch beside you to get up and meet Nina at the front door. As you opened the door, you saw the friendly Rabbit Monster carefully pull a large carrier covered in a blanket from her back seat. Pushing past the screen door, you made to help her carry her bags but once she caught sight of you she shooed you away.

“I’ve got it.” She assured. In one hand she held the carrier, in the other was a single, pastel yellow book bag.

Still, you held the door for her as she made her way inside. “The room is down the hall, third door on the right.”

She thanked you again and left you to lock the door behind you. Quietly, you walked to your bedroom to check on Spades and found him still splayed out over the pillow with his teddy bear lying across his stomach. He had gone to bed early again today, seemingly tired out after traveling through part of the city earlier in the day.

“Is he asleep?”

You silently jump at the sound of Nina right behind you, but spin around and smile wide with mirth.

“Ya. He went to bed an hour ago.” She peeks in passed you and giggles at him laying upside down on the pillow; his favorite position.

A tiny, orange and red fire Bitty is perched on Nina’s shoulder. A GrillBitty dressed in nice slacks and a crisp white shirt waves at you when you finally notice him, and you smile back.

“Hey little GrillBitty. Welcome to my home. Make yourself comfortable.”

He nods his head in thanks, then carefully holds on as Nina straightens again.

“This is G, an original GrillBitty. I’m hoping that he can help us with Spades over the next few days.” G gives another head nod in greeting before everyone heads back to the living room.

“I have some night time tea if you’d like some.” You offer. Nina accepts the tea and you have to head back to the kitchen for a second mug. The tea pot is already prepared, sitting on the table with a matching stand. A tea light is lit underneath to keep the tea above room temperature so you could have more than one glass if you choose.

Pouring a full amount into the sunflower-print mug, you head back to the living room with an accompanying plate of cookies. G is standing on the coffee table, leaning over your scattered work papers and Nina is watching the muted television.

“You’re watching the news this late at night?” It’s 1030 pm on a Sunday; just in time for the last news cast of the day.

Nina accepts her tea and you make room on the table for the cookies, offering one to G. “Ya, I wanted to see if there was any information about Monsters moving into the city.”

“What do you mean?”

You hold up the packet of text that you had been working on and motion to the table in front of you. “My work let me take some work home for the next few days while you’re here. Apparently the local apartment complexes and real estate agencies are under a sudden deadline to advertise to a Monster audience.”

Nina’s pale purple eye brows raise in slight surprise. “An influx of Monsters?”

You nod and continue, “My friend, Alexandria, works with the City Council in the Financial Department. She’s pretty bad with keeping up with the news but some people at her work were talking about Ebbot City’s call for foster cities a month ago. I’m wondering if her gossip and my work are signs that we’re about to get a lot more Monsters in the area.”

“Wouldn’t a barrier have to be broken, though?”

You paused in your cleaning and stared into the distance to think. The Barrier? You only knew of one that had broken eight years ago, when Monsters first started showing up. Was there more?

“What do you mean? I thought the barrier was already broken.”

Nina stared at you a moment and blinked. “The first barrier broke about eight years ago, right?” You nod. “The barrier in my Underground broke only six years ago.”

“What? What do you mean? Were there more barriers?”

She shook her head. “Haven’t you watched any of the special reports or documentaries on Monsters? They talk about the Barriers and the different Undergrounds all the time.”

You groan in annoyance, both at your moment of stupidity and at the thought of the ‘documentaries’ you had glimpsed. “The only ones I heard about were by the Anti-Monsters and Children For Mankind. They’re more like bad gossip than anything reliable.”

Then again, you had only moved to Twin Sisters about six years ago yourself.

“Well, I guess the short version is that there are multiple Underground areas where Monsters have been locked away. Each area has a barrier that must be broken that is not affected by the other barriers. When the barrier to the Underground that I lived in had broken, we were really surprised to find other Monsters already working in Ebbot City.”

“Did that help you any? Like, with settling in?”

She hummed a moment and you watched as G plucked up a pair of cookies, offering one to you. You took it with a smile and started to nibble on the light chocolate flavor while Nina spoke.

“Kind of. Not as much as you would think though. Apparently my Underground was the second one to break free. So the first group of Monsters were still trying to make changes and form into society when a second group of Monsters had to be thrown into those declarations and new laws.”

“I think that was around the time Children For Mankind really started to get active.” You were just settling in to your new home when the news started hosting debates and talk shows about the increased influx of Monster Kind. “I didn’t really understand what they were talking about when they spoke of ‘a wave of Monsters pushing mankind to the brink of extinction’. I thought all the Monsters that are around now were from the same Underground area.”

Nina’s brow furrowed and she started waving a finger at you like she was about to figure something important out. “I don’t…” she paused to gather her thoughts again. “I don’t think anyone had an idea about the other Undergrounds until the third one broke.” She looked to you know, but her gaze was still in the past. “The First Underground and my Underground were okay. We only wanted to be free, but the Third Underground had been preparing for war.”

You nearly choked on a cookie crumb in surprise. “War? I didn’t hear anything about that.”

Nina shook her head, gaze still distant. “The Third Underground broke free just a few months after we did. I think so many Monsters showing up with slightly different stories was what gave the scientists the idea.” She nodded to herself, as if things were starting to make sense to her now. “Yes, I believe that was what happened because when The Fourth Underground showed up another year later, things had really moved forward and started working out again.”

“Were all The Undergrounds in the same area? For all the Monsters to just find each other like that?”

Nina nodded. “Yes. All the barriers seemed to break around Mount Ebbot. Of course Ebbot City would be the first city that Monsters would go to, but it’s surprising how little information has made its way from the city. Twin Sisters’ is only a two hour drive from Ebbot City”

“True. Maybe I just don’t pay attention to the right news sources if I’m missing so much information. Still though, two hours is a long distance to travel. You said your Underground became free only six years ago, so what made you want to move to Twin Sisters?”

Nina smiled. “Well, I actually met Mama Cry and her Bitty Center back in Ebbot. When she started getting in more Bitties than her small adoption center could handle, we worked together to get more centers opened.” She cupped her mug and sighed. “It was a lot of hard work but I eventually got permission to start a new center outside of Ebbot but it wasn’t for another eight months before Twin Sisters stepped in and offered to be our first host.”

“You had to get offers to build a new center?”

Her smile turned sad. “Yes. It was during the time when humans still weren’t sure what to do with Monsters. Just because I got the permission and paperwork to leave Ebbot, didn’t mean that any other city would offer a safe place for such small Monsters. Twin Sisters was the only one that actually offered. The other cities had been ones that I contacted myself and was turned away.”

You got up and walked over to Nina, scooping G up as you did so. Nina looked at you in confusion before your arms wrapped around her shoulders and G cuddled up to her neck.

“I am so sorry that things had been so difficult and I am so sorry I didn’t know.” You pulled away and smiled at her. “I’m so glad to have you here though.”

Tears pricked the corners of Nina’s eyes as she stared up at you, but when G moved to avoid a stray tear, she was quick to wipe them away. She tried to laugh the heavy air away but still reached out for another hug that you happily gave.

“Thank you.” She whispered.

 

 

Two days ago you woke up alone.

Yesterday, you woke up next to Spades.

And today?

Well, um.

“Up and at’em, human!”

“Don’t yell at them, Pappy!”

“Who you?!”

“Hello friend!”

“Are they awake?”

“Pappy! Blue! I told you to wait for me!”

Hearing Mama Nina causes you bolt up in bed to a sitting position, throwing off a collection of small weights with a variety of surprised yelps.

“I’m up.”

  
Kinda.

 

Not really, but you’re trying.

“Sorry.” Mama Nina chuckles.

You muster up a tired smile and look over to your alarm clock. It’s at least an hour before your alarm is set to go off.

You let out a groan that slides into a yawn, stretching your arms high and point your toes. “What’s the early wake-up call for?”

Without warning, four small objects are suspended into the air, two in front of you and nearly smacking into each other. Mama Nina gasps and reaches for G as he was pulled above her and into the doorframe.

A small pair of skeleton faces swing back and forth in front of you, wiggling and the smallest one whines. Pitching forward, you try to grab at the little bitties gently, but a growl sounds out behind you and they get pulled higher above you.

“What-“ Spinning on the spot you find Spades standing on the bed at your hip and holding onto your night shorts. He has four lines of his blue magic sprouting from his hand that point towards the ceiling but fade away after two inches.

Looking at the suspended bitties again, you see the same blue strings fading from the ceiling and wrapping around their little bodies. Mama Nina is trying to tug at the strings holding the Grillbitty, but she can’t seem to get a good grasp on them.

“Hey,” You turn to Spades, “what are you doing? Let them go.”

He frowns at you and barely flexes his fingers.

There are a series of breathy grunts in front of you and something yelps.

“I request to be down now.”

“Yes! This is not a good way to make friends!”

“This is very rude! You do not greet others this way!”

You scoot to your knees and reach up for the little blue skeleton above you again, nearly reaching him when a new blue string wraps around your hand at the same time he is pulled higher.

“Hey!” Your hand is pulled to the side, making you fall over onto the bed, but it dissipates once you land on your stomach. “Spa-!” There’s a sudden weight on your head that momentarily forces your face into the blanket. “Spades! Enough!”

You feel his weight shift on your head, either from your movement or your order. Slowly moving a hand, you try to reach up and grab at him, but he lets out another growl and his weight vanishes. You spring to your hands and knees, searching for him on the bed and spot him on your pillow.

“Spades.” You keep from barking at him, opting for a sterner tone of voice instead. “Calm down. They’re friends. Put them down.”

He frowns back at you, eyes narrowed and magic still sprouting from his opened hand. He shifts from one foot to the other, a move so minute you aren’t sure if it was him keeping balance on the soft material or something else.

You narrow your eyes at your bitty and order him again. “Spades. These are our friends and they’re going to be here for a few days to help you grow faster than if you were just with me, okay? So put them down. Gently.”

His unhappy expression turns into a sharp glare but you see the magic in his hand quiver as his grip loosens. Glancing behind you, you watch as the two other skeleton bitties are dropped onto your bed, a purple bitty in lowered to the floor at the foot of your bed and G is suspended in front of Nina. When the strings disappear, you return your gaze to Spades but find him slightly turned away and still glaring at you.

You opt to smile at him, hoping to show that you weren’t mad anymore. “Thank you, Spades. I promise that they’re nice. They only want to help.” You reach forward to give him an affectionate head rub but he doesn’t seem appeased by the gesture.

You sit back to scoop him into your hands and turn to sit facing Nina and the other bitties. On your bed you recognize a Baby Blue and a Pappy, both struggling to stand back up on your thick, soft blankets. At the end of the bed, a skeleton like Pappy in a purple sweater and blue scarf manages to pull themselves onto the blankets, then promptly lays back down and falls asleep.

Nina walks forward with G on her shoulder again.

“I’m so sorry.” She says and prepares to speak more when you cut her off with your own apology on Spades’ behalf. You both pause a moment then laugh at the awkward morning wake up. “Perhaps we can get everyone breakfast and then we’ll introduce ourselves to you and Spades?” She looks down to your bitty, offering him a friendly smile.

Spades digs his tiny hands into your shirt and presses closer to your chest but doesn’t greet Nina or say anything. You debate scolding him for his rude behavior but remember that he hasn’t really met anyone aside from you, though last time he saw Nina he seemed pretty excited about it.

You agree to start up some breakfast and scoot from the bed. The Pappy and Baby Blue hop to Mama Nina, climbing into her hands and settling themselves in for a short trip while she scoops up the sleeping skeleton bitty.

Spades refuses to be set on the kitchen counter, so you compromise with him and wrap a scarf around your neck for him to burrow into so he doesn’t fall into the food. It takes a bit of extra maneuvering to get pancakes started without bending over and dropping your bitty.

Baby Blue and Pappy wanted to help you cook, jumping around happily gathering the supplies that you needed while you felt Spades burrow further into the scarf and wrap himself around your neck in a loose hug. As you were mixing the batter together, the Baby Blue kept asking questions and telling you about life at the adoption center.

“So what does Spades call you?” He asks while helping Papy stir the batter together.

You were off to the side, repositioning your bitty so he lay on the back side of your neck so you could work at the stove.

“What do you mean?”

“Bitties always call their favorite human a special name!” Papy interjected. “Like we call Mama Nina ‘Mama’!”

Baby Blue jumps close to you again and looks at Spades as he peeks over your nape. “What do you call your human, Spades?”

You fall quiet, trying to think of any instances where Spades had ever referred to you or called your attention. He actually hasn’t been talking too much, and when he wanted your attention Spades would usually smack something, like the window yesterday afternoon.

You turned to ask Nina something when Spades threw his full weight into your neck, nearly choking you. He wrapped his arms as far around your neck as he could and hugged tightly into your skin.

“Mine!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you sooooo much everyone! I recieved so many prompts from the last chapter and now I'm going to filter them in the next few chapters.  
> You're not aware of it yet, but the plot is in there, I promise. Things are rolling behind the scenes, I just need stuff to pad the plot. So thank you all again for those prompts!  
> Have a wonderful holiday Lovlies!


	10. Work to Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit more information, then a peek into how Spades feels

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated some tags, deleted that chapter that was an author's note, and changed the title a bit.   
> Getting things organized for the rest of the story >3

Mama. Mom. Mother. Ma’am. Miss.

Dada. Papa. Dad. Father. Sir. Mister.

Zaza. No.

Baba. No.

No. No. No. No. No.

You, Nina, Blue, Pappy, and G spent your early morning breakfast time trying to explain the different types of titles Spades could address you with. He refused to stray from calling you ‘Mine!’ and refused to leave your side for the whole meal.

An hour later found everyone gathered in the living room, preparing to watch the morning news and start working around the house. This time you had the television volume set to low because both you and Nina had forgotten to pay attention to it last night and were hoping to have a repeat broadcast of the information from the weekend. Spades is still wrapped in the scarf around your neck and is begrudgingly holding a taut conversation with Pappy and Blue.

“What about ‘Mimi’, Spades?” Baby Blue offers from the couch cushion.

Since Spades refused to leave your person, you had chosen to sit on the floor with your back against the couch and let the other Bitties sit on the cushion behind you. This left Spades feeling safe around you while still being close enough to the other Bitties to have a conversation and get used to them. Despite how little he was talking, Spades was at least listening to Blue as he nestled against your collar bone.

“Yes!” Pappy cheered. “It can be short for ‘Mine-Mine’ but still be more loving and less…..possessive?” He almost mumbles the last part but you and Nina catch it anyway and choke back a laugh at his rather blunt persuasion.

“Mimi?” You hear Spades whisper, causing your heart feeling lighter and a smile stretch on your face.

Something seemed to catch his attention because he looks up at you in surprise and blushes a little.

Feeling like you were caught, you look back to him and give a small smile, but still sheepishly voice your opinion. “’Mimi’ does sound kinda cute. I like it.”

He blinked twice at you before turning away and crawling under the top-most fold of the scarf to hide from everyone. You felt him roll over and rock in the fabric before settling down against your sternum. You gave a quick smile to the Blue, who looked a little upset from the abrupt end to their conversation and offered your hand to move him to the coffee table.

“Don’t worry Baby Blue. Spades just needs some time.”

Nina is typing away on her own laptop, working on some paperwork for the Center while her partner, Papa Aleel, watched over the Bitties and took over the public work. You had never met Mr. Aleel during your visits with Nina about the strange destruction around your house the month previous. She had explained that he preferred to work at night and often kept guard and cleaned the place. He also oversaw both Mama Cry’s and Mama Nina’s online marketing, being that there were still so few other Centers outside of Ebbot City.

“He is a great help at night, even if Twin Sisters’ is far safer than Ebbot City had been, it’s still nice knowing that he is there.”

“Did he come from the same Underground as you?” Pappy jumped around the couch behind you, sorting your work folders alphabetically while Blue started doing the same for Mama Nina’s work on the coffee table.

“He actually came from the Third Underground. He had been a lower ranking soldier in the Royal Guard; really rough and tough when I first met him, but he has taken to surface life really quickly.”

The other skeleton bitty, Poppy, snoozed heavily on a couch pillow that fell to the floor and G was reading some notes back to Nina when she needed them for her reports. You were shifting through your second packet, checking for spelling errors and editing the fonts of select text to fit as captions, titles, subtitles, or body text.

To the right of your work laptop screen was an open chat window where people from each department were discussing the projects and how things were going to be laid out. As soon as you had signed in, you stated that you were working as an editor and from home, which both simplified some things and complicated others, but everyone was still working to figure the details out anyway.

The chat was consumed in a timeframe debate right now because some companies had requested a priority on their projects over the others. This had Yael arguing with most of the department heads about time, number of projects, and the deadline. While you had the option to give your own input to the discussion, you would rather focus on Nina and the Bitties than the chat box.

“Hey, they’re reporting about Ebbot City.”

Grabbing the remote, you quickly turn up the volume: “-opulation has become a focus for the groups fighting against the Monster Race. The human population in Ebbot City lay at 70% five years ago and is now down to a shocking 8% reported earlier this year, fueling the claims that the sharp drop is due to new diseases and violence spurred by the Monsters within the city. Residents within the city claim that this is not the case, however.

A month ago, Ebbot City Officials, both Monsters and Humans, had called out for other cities to support Monsters and take in entire populations from some Undergrounds that volunteered to venture outside of the city limits. This comes as a bold step out of the tight bubble Monsters have been locked into since arriving to the surface nearly nine years ago.

Twin Sisters’ Mayor, Jonathan Mann, proudly stated that ‘Our Town strongly and proudly supports our Monster neighbors’ affirming that they are ‘seen as brothers and sisters, not strangers’. Although there will be an official announcement made in the following hour, Mann has already stated that ‘Yes, we are supporting a population of Monsters’ scheduled to arrive sometime within the month. Details are still limited, but several local companies have begun work in preparation for the influx of residents. “

You smiled and looked to Nina, seeing a smile on her face and perhaps something shining in her eyes. Then you remembered Lila, and the Monster clinic in town, and even Tiny Tina’s boutique, knowing that the store was run by another Monster.

“Hey, Nina.” The lavender bunny turned to look at you, blinking away the excess water in her eyes. “Why _are_ there so few Monsters outside of Ebbot? We have quite a few living and working around here, I thought it was the same in other towns.”

You watched as she seemed to deflate, and suddenly felt like an idiot about making assumptions. “No. All the Monsters living in Twin Sisters are sponsored by the City or local companies. While it is true that there are many in this town, they are all here to work in one way or another. It was the only way to safely leave Ebbot and offered a long-term protection from other, unfriendly sources.”

Well now you _were_ an idiot. Sitting here, living your life thinking everything was happy and moving along fine while Monsters continued to be corralled into a single city that no doubt was starting to feel smaller every day. “Wait.. it’s been almost a decade,” You frowned, “how are Monster _just now_ leaving the city? Haven’t the Officials been fighting for that since day one?”

Now Nina frowned and focused inward. “Hm, I guess yes and no? I can’t really explain it, but as more Undergrounds were freed, it was like things became more difficult to leave. Not just because of the Human laws and Anti-Monster groups, but even my Queen refused to let the Monsters from our Underground leave without a Sponsorship. Same with the other Royals.”

The both of you lapped into silence, trying to solve this ever strange and evolving puzzle before slowly returning to your respective projects.

 

 

 

You woke up Spades after the last of the news broadcast over an hour later, bouncing him lightly in the scarf hammock he had made. When he first sleepily blinked at you, he seemed rather content with life until he heard Baby Blue and Pappy playing with a 500-piece puzzle to your right side. You offered him an encouraging smile and slowly pried him from the fabric and to your lap instead.

“Morning, sleepy-head. Did you want to help with the puzzle?” His unhappy look turned into a sharp frown before he huffed, crossed his arms and pointedly turned away from the pair watching him quietly. You hummed, then glanced at Nina to gage her face; professionally stoic. Darn.

She locked eyes with you and gave a gentle smile, then tapped Poppy’s head to catch his attention. Without a word, Poppy hopped from his new position resting on the chair’s armrest to the coffee table and plucked up a small ball from Nina’s box of toys. Spades didn’t look at him as Poppy shuffled his way to the part of the coffee table in front of you and motioned for Spades to join him.

After a moment, you scoop up Spades and pop him to the table top.

“Hey Spades.” Poppy greeted. “Name’s Poppy.” He bounced the ball once, maintaining a bored but friendly appearance. You waited, watching Spades look over the taller Bitty in front of him, before he turned to you with a silent question.

“Say ‘hi’, Spades. Poppy and the others are here to help you learn faster.” You jerked your chin towards Poppy, trying to encourage Spades to interact at least a little.

The faintest of blue blushes formed on Spades’ face as he frowned and side-eyed the Papyrus-Bitty who casually bounced the ball once more. Poppy shifted to take a few steps towards the center of the flat surface and sat down while facing Spades.

“Here. We can pass this ball back and forth. Don’t even have to say anything.” Poppy twirled the ball in his hands, and motioned for Spades to take a seat in front of him.

Your Bitty gives you one more look, as if hoping you would save him from socializing, but when you didn’t he gave a pout and stepped in front of Poppy. He dropped to a sitting position and kept his arms crossed until Poppy rolled the ball to him.

Tiny red hands stopped the ball, pausing a moment to study the strange new object, then carefully rolled it back to the other skeleton. Poppy returned the ball and Spades did likewise, each in silence. No words were passed, just the ball and, on occasion, a peek at the other Bitty, but everyone else kept quiet, leaving the two to their silent interaction.

You gave Nina one more look, quirking an eyebrow, but she smiled and nodded slightly, letting you know that this was good.

'Well,' you think, 'any interaction is probably a good thing.'

 

 

 

Passing this ball back and forth wasn’t the worst thing to do, but it was still stupid. Why hadn’t his human kicked these other Bitties out the moment they showed up? You kept saying that they were here to help him, but he didn’t really need help, especially from other annoying Bitties. When had they gotten here anyway? They just jumped into your bed and woke you up without warning and then when he tried to get them to back off, you ordered him to release them.

How annoying.

Spades caught the rolling ball and pushed it back at the other Bitty harder than before.

Tch, this Bitty was annoying too. They didn’t say anything but somehow got his human to force him to ‘play’ with them, so Spades didn’t like them. How dare they even look at his human.

This Bitty was taller than him, but looked tired all the time. Maybe they were sick or something. What if they got you sick? He growled low in his throat.

Stupid, stinking other Bitties.

This time the ball was spun as it rolled, causing it to do a weird little curve that made Spades lean to the left to catch it. Why didn’t he just let it roll off the table? That would have ended this farce, right? Still, he picked up the ball and glared at Poppy, who gave him a weak smile and shrugged.

Did he think this was fun? Was he playing around or did he just come over to bother him?

Spades flicked the ball back at Poppy, causing the ball to bounce once before Poppy caught it with both hands. The stupid Bitty rolled it back to him as if nothing had happened, but Spades wanted him to know that he didn’t like him, so he flicked the ball again.

Again, Poppy caught the ball with two hands, then he carefully bounced it once back at Spades, who hurried to catch it before it hit him in the face. _Now_ they were really annoying. Spades bounced the ball again, slightly harder and watched it arch higher than he thought it could go before dropping right into Poppy’s lap.

Darn, he didn’t mean to do that.

Poppy smiled at him (Spades hated that) then stood up and walked another three steps away. Spades blinked; what was he doing?

When Poppy sat back down, he bounced the ball on a short arch, causing it to bounce twice before getting to Spades. On the second bounce, Spades was ready to catch it, but jumped in surprise when the darn thing started glowing!

The ball landed in his outstretched arms and he held it there, watching in confusion and fascination as the toy rapidly flashed between red, green, white, blue, and yellow. How was it doing that? Magic? No, he couldn’t sense any on it. Maybe there was something inside it?

The lights suddenly died out, returning the ball to its original blue color and leaving Spades with more questions than answers. He pulled it closer, searching the surface for any type of button or switch that could have started the lights, then started tapping on the thick rubber.

There was something inside it!

He rotated the ball, holding it above his head, close to his face, or in the glare of the morning sunlight, but he couldn’t see what it was. More confused, he looked up to Poppy to see if he had something that made it glow.

The tall Bitty was smiling at him; a gentle, kind, patient smile that Spades couldn’t tell if he hated or if was willing to tolerate until the secrets of this ball were figured out.

Instead, Spades sat up straighter and bounced the ball again. The arch was high, like the last time he threw it, but it bounced once and landed into Poppy’s hands without glowing. Huh.

Poppy spun the ball, then flicked it so it spun faster and somehow balanced it on the tip of his finger. How was he doing that? In an instant, Poppy grabbed the ball and bounced it with that two-bounce arch again and again it started to glow before Spades could catch it.

This time Spades dug at the rubber, trying to find where that red light was coming from and felt a small, round object buried inside. He quickly rotated the ball to the white light and felt the same round object through the rubber before the lights went out again.

This time Spades made sure to bounce the ball on a smaller arch like Poppy. It bounced once, then twice and started glowing! He did it! So it was the ball, not Poppy, that made it glow. The ball bounced a third time and the lights started flashing in a strange pattern. Two red, two white, two blue.

Poppy caught the ball but didn’t hold onto it, instead he sent it bouncing back right away and caused the flashing lights to change pattern again. It only bounced once before he caught it, and Spades quickly returned the ball without taking his eyes off it. The pattern changed again, then Poppy caught it.

Again, it was passed and again the pattern changed and Spades couldn’t take his eyes of the simple toy even as Poppy stood up and started bouncing the ball to the left and right. Spades hopped up quickly and caught the ball, returning the bounce and forcing Poppy to walk back and forth for it as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before I did research on Gender-Neutral parental titles, I had already imagined Spades calling the reader "Mine" and needed a shorter, more affectionate version of that. Thus "Mimi".  
> You can read it as [mee-mee] or [my-my], either one works.


	11. What's happening?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Normal Monday Evening?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This only took several months and 17 rewrites
> 
> No big deal 
> 
> :[

“Go fish.”

Blue pouts in slight disappointment but takes a card from the pile and adds it to his hand hidden under the box. Nina gives you a hard look, but stays silent.

Spades is sitting on your shoulder and motions for you to bring the cards close while Poppy steps up to take his turn.

“Mama, do you have any fours?” Poppy’s cards are propped up by an old dictionary, leaving his upper torso visible as he smiles up at her.

“Yes.” She groans in mock defeat and passes over a single card. The Bitty takes it and one from his line-up to place as a pair in front of his hand. He then asks Pappy for a three that the second Bitty quickly denies.

Spades pokes your face to gain your attention, pulling a two of diamonds from your hand and pointing to G.

“Use your words.” You whisper.

He deflates a moment, looking more than annoyed at you, but whispers back. “Ask G for two.” You smile at him and oblige his request, which gains you a card.

“Any other choices?” you ask Spades.

He gives a hum. “Six from Blue.” Spades is correct again before you ask Poppy for a queen, miss, and end your turn. Pappy claps excitedly and proceeds to win the game by collecting pairs of cards from everyone.

BAM!

Cards fly and several screams pierce the air, muffling someone’s words and pulling your attention in multiple directions. The chaos is more than a little disorienting but you finally focus enough to look towards your front door and find two humans standing in shock and surprise.

“Uh…” Hey, wait. You know those people. “Alexandria! You scared the heck out of us!”

Another moment passes before a look of insulted realization crosses her face. “Oh My Gosh! You’re having a party without us!” The woman quickly runs inside and slides across the floor on her knees to introduce herself to Nina and the bitties, leaving your other friend standing in the doorway.

“Hi Morgan.”

“Uh..hey.” She doesn’t move from the doorway, though she does step inside.

“You’re so cute!” Alexandria squeals next to you. You turn to find her looking down at the Baby Blue and Pappy as they stand proud on Nina’s lap and shoulder. Nina is trying to keep up with your friend’s excitable energy and check on her bitties at the same time.

There was a gentle click as the front door finally shut and you had to study your wall for any damage from Alexandria throwing it open.

Nothing. Good.

“What are you guys doing here?” You ask. Something tugs at your pant leg and you find G motioning for the cards still in your hand so he can gather the deck.

Morgan walks over to stand awkwardly by your seat. “Alexandria wanted to stop by on the way to the bar. Said you had a new Bitty that she didn’t get to see yet.”

“Forget the bar!” said friend squeals, “Look how cute these guys are!”

Blue was happily sitting on Alexandra’s head, gently gripping her black hair to stay balanced, while Pappy stood proud in her open palms. You tried to catch Nina’s eye but when you saw her, she was watching your friend with a soft smile and sharp eyes.

Morgan leaned away from the group. “Ya. Cute.” She mumbled. The pale woman cleared her throat and turned to speak to you, only to twitch in place and stare at your shoulder.

Spades barely cowed under her gaze.

“Spades, these are my friends Morgan and Alexandra.” He only gave a grunt of acknowledgment. You turned to motion at Nina for Morgan. “And this is Mama Nina from the Bitty Adoption Center in town.”

Alexandra was quick to launch into a conversation with the rabbit monster while you scoot over on the couch to give Morgan room to sit down. She did so, cuddling in close to you and draping one leg over yours.

“So…” she hedges, “you got a Bitty.” She’s seated on your other side where she can’t easily see Spades, but you feel your little buddy lean around to keep her in his sights. “I didn’t expect them to be so…small.”

You chuckle. “Well they are called ‘bitty’. That should have given you an idea.” Slowly, you reach up to cup Spades in one hand, then hold him out to present him properly to Morgan. He seems to lean further away from her the closer you bring him. “Here.”

She tenses, her leg lifting from yours. “Huh? Wha? N-no, I, uh.”

“It’s okay. He’s a little hellion.” You tease.

Morgan fervently shakes her head no and Spades is more than happy to teleport back to your shoulder, giving you a light smack in retaliation. The interaction brings a small smile to your friend’s lips and it’s obvious she isn’t insulted by Spades’ choice to leave.

“Hey!” Alexandria shouts. “Let’s play some strip poker!”

Nina quickly shouts ‘No!’ at the same time Blue and Pappy shout “Ya!”. The group stares at each other in confusion, you and Morgan sharing a glance, before Nina straightens up and clears her throat.

“I, uh, don’t think that is a good idea. There are some rather sensitive souls present.”

Alexandria looks confused from Nina to each of the bitties while you note how both Blue and Pappy look mildly confused and saddened.

“Uh, okay. Sorry.” Is all your friend can think to say. Nina just smiles and nods in gratitude.

Well, things just became a bit awkward, so you make a show of checking the clock. “Well, we still have an hour before the roast is done. We can start cooking some of the side dishes.”

Alexandria, Blue, and Pappy all jump to their feet shouting “Ya!”

 

 

  
Your kitchen is a mad house with too many chefs all vying for the same stove and one or two pots. Normally, you’re quick to take the lead in your own kitchen, only passing the reigns when Alexandria is over and insists on making something. Morgan took her usual seat at the table but quickly abandoned the crowded room for the living room again. Nina was standing off to the side of the stove, making sure that her bitties were safe around the open flame and hot utensils while Alexandria insisted on showing them how to make mashed potatoes.  
You and Spades had to weave in and out of the cluster to gather and set up the ingredients for a collard green salad. The two of you, along with Poppy, were sitting at the table now, tossing ingredients into a bowl. Your dining room area is pretty small, along with the rest of the house, but the table can only seat four. With four adults and five bitties, things could become crazy pretty quick, so you turn to shout to the living room.

“Hey, Morgan? Can you get the patio set up? Please?”

She shouts back a ‘yup!’ and heads to the back door. It’s still sunny outside, but a little windy. Maybe you should set up the awning?

Nah.

You chop up the last of the cherry tomatoes and pass them over to Poppy to toss into the bowl. Spades is still measuring out the ingredients for the vinaigrette and struggling to tip the vinegar bottle without taking a vinegar bath.

You guess you could give him a hand, but he looks so cute when he’s concentrating. Little blue tongue poking out, eye lights sharp, and little nasal bone scrunched up.

Adorable.

Then the bottle slips and Spades is downed in a wave of the liquid.

“Woah!” Vinegar splashes your hand and wrist before you right the bottle and scoop Spades from the growing puddle. He’s huddled in on himself, covering his face and sneezing. “You okay?”

He can only squint at you before sneezing four times and shaking his body in disgust. His sweater and shorts are soaked with vinegar and some is dripping down his skull and arms as he struggles to stop sneezing.

You laugh and turn to the others. “We’ll be right back.”

Nina gives a small smile and nod but Alexandria doesn’t turn from the boiling potatoes. Poppy teleports to the counter to grab a roll of paper towels as you head to the bathroom.

Morgan peaks her head through the patio doors looking curious but you wave her off before disappearing into your room and moving for the bathroom.

“Are you able to take a quick shower? I can fetch you a change of clothes.” Spades sneezes hard but manages to nod at you before the next sneeze nearly topples him over the side of your hand. You catch him, laughing, and place him next to his shower.

Next to the bitty shower was supposed to be a stack of soap bars that you had cut up to a bitty-friendly size, but it looks like someone had started using the soap as bricks to build something out of them.

“Are you building something?” You ask Spades and point to the construct.

The vinegar-soaked shirt snags on his skull a moment before he pops it off, violently throwing his head back once it’s free. He shakes himself, and then looks to you and the soap.

“Stand.”

“You’re building a stand out of the soap blocks?” He nods and tosses his shirt into the sink behind him. “Huh.” Well, maybe he does need a proper place to put his stuff.

Spades is nearly naked when you leave to find him some fresh clothes. Like his bath stuff, his clothes don’t have a dedicated storage space and are neatly folded inside the bottom half of the box his shower came in. It’s a temporary fix, but now that you’re looking at everything, maybe you should head out to the boutique this week and get him a rolling closet or something. And stands.

Undergarments, socks, red shorts, and a black shirt with a red trim. You know Spades usually runs around the house barefoot but if he decides to wear shoes, his black slippers or black sneakers would work fine. He’s already in the shower when you place his folded change of clothes on the bathroom counter and leave him to wash both your hands and the kitchen table.

The sight of Poppy and G cleaning the table greets you when you enter the kitchen along with the scent of vinegar. You head over to the pair.

“Hey guys. Thanks for cleaning the table.”

“No problem.” Poppy gives you a thumbs-up while G gives a polite head nod.

You turn your focus to Poppy and eye the salad in the bowl behind him. “Did we finish the salad or are we still missing some things?”

Poppy tosses the wet paper towel to the side, leaving G to finish drying with his dry rag, and walks over to the bowl of chopped vegetables. “Hm, I think we just need that vinaigrette and we’re done.”

“Perfect.” You can finish that quickly so you head to grab the now-half-empty vinegar bottle from the counter, but pause for G. “Yes?” He released your shirt sleeve and looks at you.

…

And looks?

. . .

“…could you take me to Mama Nina, please?”

Wha-oh…his voice was like the being in the direct path of a gentle heater; slow to warm up but soothing on the ears and you don’t think Poppy heard G talk despite being just behind him. It was like the little Bitty’s words were only for you.

But it was a question.

Uh, a request actually. “O-oh! Ya! Sure.” You’re blushing, why are you blushing?! “S-sorry.” Once you present your open palm, he smiles up at you and nods a ‘thank you’ before stepping up. He’s taller than Spades but somehow lighter? And he doesn’t burn your hand, or the clothes he wears now that you think about it.

Monsters are confusing; stop thinking about it.

Nina is clearly trying not to laugh at you as G jumps from your hand to her shoulder, but she isn’t hiding it very well. You give her an exaggerated look of awe mixed with confusion that has her and G laughing a little louder, catching Alexandria’s attention.

“What’s so funny?”

You continue with you’re awkward full-body gesturing and turn to her, acting more confused with extra arm flailing. Alexandria knows your excessive gestures already, but the two bitties with her do not.

“Are you okay!?” Pappy drops his spoon with a pang!

Blue jumps around a bowl of half mashed potatoes, “What’s wrong with your arms?!”

Laughter roared through the small room as you and Alexandria burst through the frayed silence, which caused Nina to laugh louder behind her hand. Poor Blue and Pappy were so confused and G almost fell off Nina’s shoulder, but the laughter was contagious and none were spared.

You scooped up Baby Blue and Alexandria plucked Pappy from the counter, each hugging them with gentle coos. It wasn’t your intention to scare the bitties but you were a rather random person at times and most people weren’t used to that. Blue didn’t seem upset with the sudden attention though as he hugged your cheek and laughed with you. He was no doubt still confused but at least he wasn’t freaking out anymore.

Satisfied that the sudden panic was over, you smiled at him and placed him back on the-

“AH!”

Something exploded next to you, sending debris across your face and something definitely got into your eye. You may have flinched more violently than you had intended to but did you accidently drop the Blue?

You had moved from the counter on instinct to avoid whatever ‘attacked’ you and had to turn back around to find the little Bitty who was, thankfully, still on the counter. Dust hung in the air, causing you to sneeze and that ended up irritating your clenched eye further so you rubbed at it.

“What was that?!” Alexandria shouted.

You sneezed, accidently punching yourself in your already irritated eye. “Ow.”

“Human?”

A tiny voice was directed at you, but you only saw black for a moment before it fell to your arm and grabbed your sleeve.

“You okay?!”

Spades?

You furiously blinked at your open eye to force the dust away and tried to focus on your little bitty that was climbing up your arm. Still half blinded, you awkwardly wrap your arm under him for support and look to him.

“I’m fine, Spades. Something just got in my eyes.” You felt tiny hands start fisting themselves into the collar of your shirt.

Someone whistled. “Damn, looks like something really hit your cabinet.”

Sneezing again, Spades flailed in your grip a moment and the both of you scrambled to keep him balanced.

“Ah, sorry.” You probably sneezed on him.

“Something wrong with eye??” Once he had his balance on your arm, a small hand reached up to rub your cheek below the eye that had something in it.

You smiled blindly at him. “Something’s in my eye. I’ll be able get it out but it’ll take me a minute.” A tear gathered in the corner along your eyelashes and you heard a small gasp.

Spades’ weight on your arm shifted in an odd pattern, like he was tap dancing. “You crying! You hurt?”

Something sounded off about his voice too, causing you to frown. “N-no, Spades. I’m fine. It’s my eye trying to get the stuff out. Nothing bad.” Both eyes wanted to squeeze tightly shut but you blinked at the left one so you could find the table and take a seat while the sounds of the others cleaning the counter echoed behind you.

Even when you sat down, Spades clung to your shirt and remained standing on your forearm, leaving you to rub at your eyes with one hand. The right eye was tearing up more now, the first tear just managing to roll down your chin and come to a stop where Spades’ little hand rested on your face.

His weight shifted again, this time feeling like he was jumping on your arm but the placement of his hand on your face and shirt didn’t change.

“What are you doing, buddy?” Through several quick blinks, you could see how worried he looked as he watched your other hand rub. He looked between your eyes, watching you rub one and squint the other and back again. “It’s okay. I’m okay.” You soothe.

Smaller this time, Spades’ weight on your arm jerked and through blurry vision you saw something dance along his body. He didn’t react to it or seem to have noticed it at all and you questioned if you had seen anything when you blinked and saw it again. “H-hey, what’s wrong? What’s happening?”

Both eyes had a trail of tears now from the various irritants but you locked them on the worried red eye lights before you as little black and red spots danced around Spades’ legs and arms. In time with the spots, his weight stuttered on your arm despite the fact that he refused to move from running a hand along your bottom eye lid.

“Are you okay?”

You jerked up at Nina as she looked you over, hovering carefully.

“Uh, Spades,” You looked back to him, “There was something around him a-and he felt weird.”

“No! You eye!” He looked to Nina and pointed at you. “Fix they eye!”

Nina frowned in worry at both of you, but slowly bent down to look over your face.

“I’m fine, just something got in my eye.” Two gentle fingers tried to pry open your right eye lids, but your body fought her. “I’ll blink it out eventually.” Two more tears rolled down your cheek at the prompting. “But something was wrong with Spades!”

She finally left your eye alone, looking worried, and focused on Spades instead. “Are you okay, Spades?” He didn’t answer her or even look her way as he continued to worry over the tears rolling down your cheeks.

“Spades?” You wanted to know he was okay.

His own tears had gathered in the bottom of his sockets and with one glance at your gaze he suddenly sobbed and started crying into your shirt.

“H-hey!” What was wrong? “Are you okay?” He curled against your shirt, holding on harder. A new set of tears flooded your eyes as you looked to Nina. She looked just as worried and confused as you felt.

Spades wouldn’t talk through his sobbing and you couldn’t think of anything through the pain in your eye and worry over Spades to do much right now. So you held him close, cooed soft words to him and wondered what had just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite rewriting this so much, I really think this chapter was the best outcome so I'm not too mad about how long it took


	12. Party Loading... ... ...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So your friends took over your house and now you're having a sleep over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I want to thank all the lovely people who left comments and kudos on this story! Thank you so much, guys! It really means a lot to me. <3 <3
> 
> Second, it seems like we have quite a few new readers finding this story. It's amazing how many people enjoy Spades' shananigans. Thank you all for the love and support!

“So, you’re….what?”

Baby Blue puffs out his chest to showcase the paper ‘S’ taped to his shirt and pointed to the paper mask and hat he made. “I’m Super-Bat-Spider-man!”

You inhaled deeply through the nose, held it, and carefully exhaled in an effort not to laugh at the adorable bitty. “You look awesome.” You say instead. Blue beams and gives a cheerful ‘thank you’ before running off to help Poppy with his Catwoman-Venom costume.

With a moment to yourself, you turn away and let out a breathy laugh mixed with a squee of happiness at how cute Baby Blue and Pappy were being. 

“Huh?” Spades asks from the top of the couch. 

You beam at him and lean over to plant a quick kiss on his temple, right under the classic paper hat Blue had made him. The Bittybones squawks and swats at your face before you pull away, smiling wider. 

“You. Are. Adorable.” You emphasize at him. His blue dusting becomes a brighter blue blush as he crosses his arms and looks away. 

Fucking. Cute.

No second thoughts; you pop out your phone, hit the camera shortcut and snap three quick pictures all before Spades realizes what you’re doing and disappears. You chuckle and check the pictures. The first is blurry from motion but the other two are clearly showing Spades’ confused embarrassment and you save them to three different folders. 

A necessity after you found random cat memes in place of contact photos the month before. 

Mama Nina’s giggle pulls you from your phone to see Pappy magically placing a carefully crafted Agent of Shield paper badge on her blouse. She thanks him for the gift and carefully runs her fingers over it. Beside her G is holding an Aquaman trident made of cut and sanded popsicle sticks. 

“Human!” Pappy calls. “I have finished your costume as well!”

“Aww, thanks Pappy. You didn’t have to do that.”

Pappy jumps from the couch to the coffee table. “It was nothing for the Great Pappy, human!” He plucks a candy from the table top and motions for you to kneel close. You smile and sit on the floor, then rest your head on folded arms while the bitty starts clipping the candy to your hair. 

Everyone had gotten too excited about pizza and a movie night. After it was found out that wood chips had littered the food previously made and dinner had to be scrapped, Morgan offered to order pizza which then had Alexandria excited about a movie night and nothing could stop the excitement after that. 

Pappy walked in front of you to reach the left side of your head and clipped four more candy pieces and a big red paper bow into place before declaring you done. You were now Vanellope Von Schweetz. All you needed now was-

“And here is this, human!” Baby Blue holds up a paper copy of the cookie hero medal from Wreck-it-Ralph, carefully tied to a band of braided thread. 

“Perfect.” You smile and lean your head over so he can throw it around your neck. “Now we’re all perfect and ready to go.”

“Yes! We just need to wait for the other humans to return!” Blue cheered.

“And this mysterious ‘pizza person’ to deliver the replacement dinner.” Pappy cups his chin and looks to the door. “Do they just enter and make the pizza?”

You chuckle. “The food is already made. They’ll just drop it off and we give them a tip for bringing it here.”

“ ‘Tip’ like advice?”

“Oh! Like looking both ways before crossing a street?” Blue asks.

“More like money.” You clarify. “To say ‘thanks for working’ and maybe to cover the cost of fuel.”

The two give a chorus of “Oohh” before running around to clean up the paper bits and glue. 

“Do we have a timeframe?” Poppy asks. He’s wearing a full mask made of black construction paper with eyes and teeth cut out to look like Venom from Spider-man but with added cat ears from Catwoman. There was also a make-shift whip of braided black thread on his hip. 

“Looking good, Poppy.” Nina gives the bitty a thumbs-up.

You echo the praise and look to the clock on the wall by the kitchen archway. “Food should be here before the girls return. We can start a movie while we wait for them.” You move to do just that.

“But we can’t start anything until everyone is here!” Blue objects. 

“Huh?”

Pappy dusts his hands together. “Yes! It would be rude to start without them!”

“Um…” You look to Nina, who shrugs. She was going to leave this to you. “Well, we can watch one of my movies. I know they have seen all of them so they won’t be missing anything. I’m sure they won’t mind.”

“But..” It’s clear that Pappy wants to object but Baby Blue is already eyeing the stack of super-hero movies everyone collected from your DVD collection. Pappy eyes a movie too, then looks at the blue bitty beside him. “Um. Maybe just one. But only if it doesn’t have a sequel!”

You giggle and scoop him and the Baby Blue into your arms. “Deal.” The two bitties hop from your grasp to start separating the stack into series and stand-alone movies, then start debating on what they could watch without your friends.

There is a small pop on your left shoulder as Spades makes himself known and eyes the movies as well. The paper hat has been replaced with a red licorice bow taped to his skull. You blink at the oddity and look back to the couch to see Poppy asleep under his mask, Nina eyeing the candy bow, and G sitting in the same spot as before. When you catch his eye, he gives you a thumbs-up.

 

  
The delivery girl arrives just as Ralph is trying to sneak into Hero’s Duty under disguise. The teen, probably in her junior or senior year of high school, looks confused at the candy in your hair before she sees the ‘medal’ and hears the movie in the background. Her face lights up when she realizes what’s going on and compliments your costume as she passes over the three pizza boxes. 

“Thank you.” You say quietly. Although the movie was loud and Poppy had turned on your surround sound, it still felt weird to talk through a movie. The girl fishes into an insulated bag to pull out the two sodas you ordered and bids you a good day. “Hey.” You chuckle at her and hold out her tip. “Thanks again.” She blushes as she takes the tip before leaving. 

Nina is behind you to close the door and grab onto the beverages before everything topples to the ground. Poppy and G are the only two not engrossed in the movie and hop up to help where they can before Nina waves them off. 

The two of you walk into the kitchen to gather supplies and return to Ralph running from the Cy-bugs. Nina had instructed you that it would be easier for everyone if the Bitties were served slices of pizza on a smaller plate rather than trying to crowd everyone onto the furniture. Upon reentering the living room, you appreciated her experience when all five bitties were able to sit with their plates and small cups in front of them without awkward crowding.

You gave Nina enthusiastic silent applause once everything was settled with minimal shuffling, then joined her back on the couch. In front of you, Spades was seated at the end of the

Bitty row, right next to G. Baby Blue had originally invited your bitty to sit between him and Pappy, but Spades refused for quite a while before hesitantly sitting next to the fire bitty. 

As you got comfortable in your seat, you saw Spades turn to look at you a moment. You cocked your head to the side in silent question at his studying gaze. He met your eyes then pointed to the candy in your hair and back at the television in front of him. You looked up to see Ralph and Vanellope bantering in the candy cane tree and realize that he must be asking if this was who you had dressed as. You nod at him in response. 

He has a slight look of understanding dawn in his eye lights before returning to the movie and his food. Everything fell into companionable silence while the movie played, broken only by a moment of laughter or the soft shuffle to get a refill. 

Just as Ralph, Vanellope, Felix, and Sergeant Calhoun reach the edge of Sugar Rush in their bid to outrun the Cy-Bugs, Alexandria throws the door open. It slams into the layer of pillows you had stacked by the wall, but is still jarring enough to pull a scream from several people. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's hard balancing work and five different hobbies (learning German, writing, drawing, sewing, and video games) but I think I'll start posting sketches or in-progress stuff on my Twitter! 
> 
> I'll even include chapter progresses, character sketches, and overall Q & A on there. Feel free to come check me out. See what other stories I have in the works, what I'm doodling, and maybe my cats. They love attention x3
> 
> Twitter: [Winkette](https://twitter.com/WinketteR)


	13. Game On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Party finally started, you play a card game

“It is now one in the morning and we find ourselves face to face with the slumbering beast, known as Poppy.” 

Everyone in the group behind you laughs quietly. 

You peek up from the side of the table and cup your hands around your eyes like binoculars. “Silent, helpful, and easily tired, this fearsome creature must take frequent naps to survive in these wild homes.”

Nina’s laugh gave a chittering sound that caused Alexandria to snort into her hand. 

You chuckle to yourself and then laugh harder when you see Spades beside you looking through his own ‘binoculars’. 

“I-it.” Laugh. “It i-is.” Chuckle. “Gosh darnit.” You breath in deeply and hold it a moment to stifle your laughter so you can finish your game. “Okay.” You return to the most bland documentary voice-over you could manage. “It is a great discovery to see this fearsome and solitary creature sleeping next to a smaller, yet equally fearsome creature known as a Baby Blue.” Spades’ chuckle pulls a smile on your face. “Th-though highly unusual, it should come as no surprise as these Baby Blues are quite cunning and sociable. How they manage to cuddle in close to their solitary counterparts is still a mystery.”

“Okay. Okay.” Alexandria is laughing and weakly flapping a hand in your direction. “It’s done. You’re done. Next round.” 

You relax the act and laugh into the coffee table before scooping up Spades and crawling back to the group. 

“Mmm, what’s happening?” 

Nina looks around you to the couch. “Aw, we’re sorry, Blue. Go back to sleep.”

Everyone else looks over to give apologetic looks to the tired Bitty but he perks up and starts walking from the couch to the group.

“Are you playing a game?” He asks. 

“Yes, I’m sorry we woke you.” Alexandria speaks low.

“Maybe we should move to the back area?” Morgan offers. 

You and Alexandria nod, but Blue jumps up. “No, it’s fine. I want to play!”

The humans are taken aback but Nina giggles. “Alright then, honey.” 

“What about Poppy?” You ask and eye the slumbering bitty still on the couch. 

“He’s a deep sleeper. It’ll be harder to wake him up.”

“Are you sure? If anyone is tired, we can move to the back.”

“After your display, I’m wide awake.” Nina laughed. G gives a thumbs up from her shoulder. 

“Okay then. Blue, did you want to partner with me or play by yourself?” Alexandria waves the King of Diamonds for Baby Blue to see.

“What are we playing?”

“King’s Court!” Alexandria speaks louder now that Blue is awake, but still lower than her usual volume during the day. “G is paired with Nina, so they count as one. Morgan, Pappy, and I are single players.”

“And Spades is with me.” You have Spades resting in your hands, and gently take one of his arms to wave at Blue. Your little Bitty retaliates by binding your finger and thumb together with blue magic. “Hey.” 

“Oh! I’ll pair with you!” Blue walks over to sit beside your tallest friend but she plucks him from the ground and sets him on her lap. “Uh, oh, thank you. So what are the rules?”

“Well, there are 5 people playing, including the three pairs. So we have four cards with the numbers one through four and a single King card.” Alexandria tosses the King card back into the center pile so Morgan can shuffle them. “We shuffle all the cards between each round and then choose one at random.” She is the first to take a card and carefully show it to Blue without any others seeing it.

Spades jumps down to grab your card, Nina takes the one closest to her, then Pappy and Morgan take one each. 

“Okay, so whoever has the King card is the ‘King’ and can order any number to do something.”

“How will they know who they’re ordering?” Blue looks up at her.

Alexandria smiles and laughs. “They don’t!”

“It would seem that I am the Royal Monarch this round!” Pappy steps forward and drops the King of Diamonds at his feet for everyone to see. “Hmm. I order numbers two and three to have a staring contest!”

“Uh oh.” Nina drops the Two of Hearts. “Me and G.”

“Against me and Spades.” You toss down the Three of Clubs.

“It works out.” Morgan laughs as she tosses the Ace of Diamonds into the center. Alexandria and Blue toss their Four of Spades into the center pile as well. 

“Excellent!” Pappy cheers. 

You and Nina line up to face each other, while each bitty sits on opposite shoulders to be at equal height. A smile creeps across your face which Nina mirrors then the two of you glance to Pappy for the start call.

“First to blink loses!” He pauses a moment. “Mama versus Human and Bitty versus Bitty. And, go!”

You lock eyes with Nina and feel an instant burn because you didn’t think to blink before the contest started. The edges of Nina’s eyes crinkle up as she smiles but she doesn’t blink. You hadn’t noticed before but the black pupil in her eyes actually has a deep purple hue around the edges, making it look larger than it really is. The focus of her eyes flits back and forth between both of your eyes. You do your best to only stare at one and zone out. If you can forget that you’re in the middle of a contest, maybe you won’t focus on how much your eyes burn right now. 

Nina’s eye lids twitch and she leans closer. You smile wider and lean closer as well. New tactic, Operation Silly Face. Your vision is blurring and it’s harder not to blink but you lean further still, cross your eyes and try to lick your nose.

Nina’s mask crumbles as she laughs hard enough to jar G on her shoulder. You blink after she does and look to check on Spades. 

“Winner!” He shouts. 

“Woohoo.” You cheer and laugh with Nina. 

The rabbit monster has a tear rolling down her cheek that she wipes away. “Oh. I wasn’t expecting you to do anything in a contest.”

“And that’s why it worked.” You cheer your victory again.

Everyone laughs while Morgan shuffles the cards to start the next round. This time you pick the four.

“King.” Morgan declares. “Hmmmm.” She looks to you. “Do you still have those shot glasses?”

Curiosity peaked, you raise a brow. “Yes. Fourth cabinet from the left, bottom row.” 

“Perfect. I order card One to make everyone a drink.”

“Sir yes sir.” Alexandria cheers. She carefully scoops up Blue and makes way to the kitchen.

“Uh oh.” Morgan smiles at you.

“You didn’t think it was her?”

She shakes her head. “No. I thought it was you or Pappy.”

“Is something wrong?” Nina asks.

“Kinda. She’ll either mix stuff together or get something alcoholic.”

Your rabbit friend makes a face. “Mix stuff? Like what?”

“Anything in the kitchen safe for consumption.” You stick out your tongue in disgust. Spades makes a disgusted noise from your lap and G gives a hesitant glance to the kitchen. 

It takes only three minutes before the pair returns with eight shot glasses balanced on a large plate. Alexandria sets the plate in front of her spot in the circle while Blue starts passing out shots. 

“You have to swallow it all in one gulp.” Alexandria sings and takes her own shot glass.  
Blue hands Spades a glass half filled with something black with white spots and you hesitate to take your glass full of red and yellow liquid. There appears to be something floating on top.

“Okay.” Alexandria lifts her glass close. “One, two, three!”

You throw back the shot, aiming to bypass most of your tongue, only to regret that choice when something burns the back of your throat. You swallow quickly and turn away to hack. The taste of mustard and cayenne hits your mouth all at once and is followed by waves of siracha. 

Tears gather and snot starts to run.

“Oh god.” You hack. Alexandria and Blue laugh but offer out napkins. You snatch three and quickly blow your nose. Below you, Spades is sputtering and sticking his tongue out in a disgusted face. “What did you get?” 

“Salty.” He coughs.

“Soy sauce and sesame seeds.” Alexandria answers. You make another face.

“I think mine was honey, olive oil, and orange juice?” Morgan recoils from the aftertaste. 

“Yup!” Blue cheers. 

“Did I have leaves?” Pappy asks. You do notice pieces of green left behind in his glass.

“Parsley, basil, and milk.” 

“Ewwww.” You groan.

“Mine wasn’t too bad.” Nina looks down at her glass.

Blue and Alexandria start gathering the shot glasses while Morgan moves to the kitchen. 

“Get me a soda, would ya?” You ask after her. She gives you a thumbs up before disappearing. 

“Milk for me, please!” Pappy calls. 

“Can I have some tea?” Nina asks. 

“What am I, the maid?” Morgan laughs from the dimmed kitchen. 

“I have a skirt you could wear.” You tease her.

Alexandria gasps and you know you just damned Morgan to spend the rest of the night in ridiculous clothing.

“What was our drink?” G asks.

“I made you a black pepper, red pepper, and sugar mix.” Blue answers. You make another face. “And Mama had some white tea, vinegar, and cocoa powder.”

“And it ‘wasn’t bad’?” You don’t think that combo sounded very pleasing. “I’d rather try the pepper and sugar mix.”

Nina just giggles, “What was yours?”

“Mustard, Cayenne, and Siracha.” You and Blue speak at the same time.

“Jinx!” You spin to Blue, pinch his leg bone then poke his head. “Now you owe me a coke.”

“W-what?” Nina asks through giggles.

“It’s a game we do. You jinx someone then ‘pinch, poke, you owe me a coke!”

“I got the soda right here.” Morgan returns with a proper tray of drinks and snacks. 

Baby Blue reaches out to grab your beverage and hands it to you. “Here is your ‘coke’, human.”

You thank him and take a card from the new pile. 

Everyone quickly follows suit and you hand Spades the card to throw down. 

“King.” Morgan calls again. She tosses the card and looks around. “One and two, switch shirts. Three and four, run outside around the house once.”

Spades throws down the three and teleports to your shoulder as you and Pappy stand up. 

“We got this, Pappy.” You cheer at him and open the front door. 

“Yes! A quick jog is nice with friends.” You turn at the bottom of the stairs and run your bare feet through the grass. It’s chilly tonight but the ground is dry after the late summer sunshine.

“Did you want to run, Spades?” He shakes his head and you pluck him from your shoulder to place him on the ground behind you. “Okay, tell us when to go then.”

“Like a race?” Pappy asks.

“Sure.”

“Excellent! I will not go easy on you, human!”

“Bring it on.”

Spades stands off to the side, clearly unamused with the banter and raises his hand to prepare. You and Pappy lean forward, ready to run. “One, two…” He draws out the pause and you see Pappy look over at him. “Go!”

You take off at a light jog, laughing because you know Spades did that on purpose. The tiny patter of feet quickly catches up to you and it doesn’t take Pappy long to pass you. He’s really pushing himself to run as fast as he can. 

You laugh again and jog a bit faster to keep up. He takes the corners with ease, rounding out behind the patio, passed the shed, and over the gardening tools you have scattered around.

At the last turn, you speed up to shoot ahead of the bitty, smiling as you do so. Pappy gasps and starts running even harder but your longer legs outmatch him. The porch comes into sight once more and you stretch out your steps to finish the ‘race’ in two long leaps. 

Something snags your ankle and you crumble to the ground. Pappy stops right beside you, skidding to his knees.

“Are you okay?”

You laugh because _what just happened_? Pappy seems relieved but you sit up to get a look at your legs and find nothing.

“What did I trip over?” You chuckle and look for Spades. 

You find him standing on the bottom step trying to school the look of guilt.

“Did you trip me?!” You chuckle. He looks back at you a bit shocked. “You little punk!”

Then you laugh which seems to confuse Pappy. “He tripped you? Why are you laughing?”

You wipe a tear from your eye, “He got me good,” then stretch out on the ground. “By the way.” You reach out one arm and tap the area where you and Pappy started the race. “I win.”

Spades lets out a chuckle and you decide it’s time to head back inside. There are grass stains on your pajama bottoms and bits of dirt and twigs all over but you don’t really care. Plucking

Pappy from the ground and Spades from the steps, you walk back inside to finish your game.

 

 

  
“You look ridiculous.” You deadpan.

Morgan huffs a pout while she collects the cards. She’s wearing the frilliest skirt you could find packed away; part of an old ballerina costume. Coupled with a spare frilly bra from Alexandria, hair ribbons from Nina, mismatching thigh-high socks and awkward red stilettos, she won’t be going outside in this. 

“I’m going to clean up.” Nina chuckles and places G on the floor. She heads to the bathroom to remove her double-layer of false eyelashes, excess blush and various ‘beauty marks’ that you were ordered to give her. 

“There is extra make-up remover under the sink.” She thanks you and disappears around a corner. 

G takes off the thimble he was wearing as a hat and hands it back to Alexandria, then offers to help Spades out of his nine layers of clothing. 

Your own nine layers restrict your movement in the most entertaining way and you can barely bend your arms to remove the first shirt without working multiple muscles. 

“Can I vacuum?” Alexandria laughs. Her face and all of Blue are covered in flour which flakes and flutters around the living room. There are tracks of caked flour where she had laughed so hard she cried and Baby Blue looks little more than a ghost in his floured clothes.

“Go ahead. I’ll clean up the drinks once I’m…” You grunt and pull at a shirt, “out…of…These!” You pull it off with a rough tug and throw it somewhere behind you. “Woo.”

Pappy returns from the other side of the couch in his own clothing again, baring Spades’ old clothes in a nicely folded pile. “Here you are friend. Thank you for switching clothes with me!”   
Spades grunts as G forces a sweater off his head but doesn’t say anything else as he works on the next shirt. You finish taking off your last shirt, aside from your dirtied night clothes, and stand to gather the drinks, plates, and tray. 

“Human, can you take me to the kitchen, please?” Baby Blue comes up to stand beside your ankle.

“Sure. Hop on.” He clambers onto the tray and you take everything to the kitchen counter. Blue steps off to grab a towel and runs it under the water when you start washing the first dish.

“Do you have a change of clothes?”

He’s washing his face first. “MmHm.”

“Did you want me to go get them?”

He has switched over to scrub at his arms. “No thank you, human. Mama is going to help me take a bath in the sink when she’s done.”

“I have a Bitty shower if you want to use that.”

“Oh! Thank you. That would be appreciated.” You pause on the dishes and pick him up from the counter. 

“Where are your clothes?”

“In the room you let us use!”

“Okay.” You head down the hall and pass the bathroom where you see Nina covered in bubbles and splashing water over the counters. “You okay?”

She jumps a little, but laughs. “This make-up is hard to get out of my fur.”

Oh crap, you didn’t think of that. “Aw, I’m sorry. Hang on, I have something that might work.”

You rush to the guest room and help Blue open a box labeled ‘Baby Blue’ that was laying on the bed. He digs around for another pajama set, you pluck him and his clothes up again and rush to your bathroom. 

“Here is the shower. You control the temperature with the sink knobs.” You flick on the cold water to show him. “Will ten minutes be enough?”

“Is it okay to take a bath?” He asks. You pause and consider the flour. It would probably take more than a quick shower to get it all off, especially if it’s between any bones.

“Oh ya. That’s fine. I can leave the door open so you can call for us if you need to.”

“I can make it back to the living room. I kind of want to soak a bit.”

“Okay then. Don’t fall asleep.”

“Thank you, Human!”

You turn to leave him to get clean and aim for the kitchen again when you spot Spades standing on the floor in your bedroom. He looks..concerned? He’s shifting from one foot to the other and clenching at his night shirt.

“Hey. You okay?” You kneel down next to him. “What’s wrong?”

He shuffles under your gaze but keeps eye contact. “Do you…like him?”

“Who?” You pause and look back. “Baby Blue?”

Spades nods.

“Well, uh, ya. He’s nice.” 

This doesn’t seem to be the answer he wanted to hear from you and he kind of deflates where he’s standing. Before you can worry, he chokes out. “I-if I’m nice. Will… you..like me more?”

What? 

Pain welled in your heart at his question but so did a sense of anger. 

“No.” You bark out. He flinches and looks about to cry. “No, Spades. I mean, I don’t want you to act like anyone else. I love you just the way you are.” You carefully but firmly scoop him into your hands and kiss his head. “I love how silly you are and your pranks, and everything about you that I don’t even understand yet. You are perfect.” You kiss him again and pull him away to look at him.

There are tears in his sockets but he looks more surprised than sad. “Why would you think I don’t like you?” You ask.

The tears fall as he looks away and tugs at the hem of his shirt. You can already see some strings becoming frayed on it and wonder how long he has been doing that. “You keep hugging him and smiling. And he’s nicer to other people and doesn’t hurt you.”

“I don’t care about any of that.” You cuddle him close to your chest. He grabs onto your shirt and holds tight and you rub his back with a thumb. “Spades, I don’t care that you don’t talk to everyone around you. I don’t like to talk to everyone either. I won’t ask you to change anything about you cause we work together really well, and I’ve only known you for four days.”

“But, I tripped you. Blue and Pappy, they wouldn’t –“

“I thought it was funny.” You chuckle at him. “Yes, some people wouldn’t like that and others would think it was rude but I didn’t get hurt and I tease my friends the same way.” You kiss his head again. “So we both play a little rough. So what. You just have to know when it’s okay and when it’s not.”

His form relaxes against your chest and you think the two of you are a little closer to understanding each other. You give him one more kiss and focus on channeling all of your love for your little bitty into a hug. He hugs you back as best he can and plants a peck on your chin before you pull away. 

“You’re not too bad, either…Mimi.” He blushes at the words and huddles against your chest.

A rush of giddiness envelopes you and you coo, “How are you so cute!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He said the thing! <3


	14. Tired Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is dragging their feet through the morning. Alexandria tries to keep the party awake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!  
> Thanks so much for your patience on this chapter.  
> I've been jumping around stories and chapters for months and when I came back to edit this one, I had so much trouble because I just wanted to work on the later chapters again! 
> 
> Anyway, I want to welcome all the new people who have come across this story! Hello!
> 
> And thank all the readers who continue to support and read this story. Thank you all so much!

Yawning wide, something hits the back of your throat.

You sputter and hack up a small red grape into your hand.

Spades is laughing at you from the top shelf of the desk and you toss the fruit ovary back at him. He ducks, catches it with a string of magic, and flings it back at your face where it bounces from your forehead onto the keyboard. 

The two of you share an easy laugh before yawning loudly in unison.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for bed.” Spades nods his head and drops his chin onto his palm. 

“Boo! No sleeping!” A voice calls out from the living room. 

Alexandria. The reason why you are still awake right now and will continue to be awake until she leaves for work. 

You glance at the time on your laptop and see that it’s now 5:15 am. Alexandria should be getting ready to leave. With a tired groan, you shut the laptop, grab Spades and the bowl of grapes, and head back to the living room. 

Nina is working on the same papers she had out an hour ago with G sitting beside her laptop. You suspect she is fighting to stay awake as well. Poppy is still passed out but has been moved to a pillow next to Nina on the floor. Pappy and Blue are nowhere to be seen but the guest room door is shut now and that tells you enough. 

Morgan seems to be the only one wide awake as she flips through the television channels. 

“Hey.” She greets. 

You mumble a half-assed greeting then ask her, “How are you not half asleep?”

The shorter human shrugs in her oversized pajama set and flips to another channel. “I’ve been working  
third shift for the past few weeks. I won’t get tired until ten or so.”

“Sounds awful.”

“It’s because of my work and I just deal with it. They’re letting me have the next four days off to reset myself before they put me back on the morning shift next Monday. So, I figure, staying awake for 36 hours would actually help me get back into an early sleep routine.”

You nod at the idea. “Sounds like a plan but do us a favor and distract Alexandria so the rest of us can sleep.” That gets several tired laughs, including from the culprit-in-question who subtly gives you the middle finger. “It’s past five in the morning anyway. Shouldn’t you be getting ready for work?”

Alexandria shrugs and curls tighter into Morgan on the couch. “Nah. I tried to call off but they have something they really need my help with, so I said I could come in later to work on it.” She sticks out her tongue to taunt you. “So I don’t have to leave until at least nine. Meh.”

You and Spades stick out your tongues at her. “Well, while you’re gone, I’m going to take a nap at least.” She boo’s at you again. “I need to get some of my own work done and I can’t focus when I’m half asleep.”

“Boo, lame.” You toss the grapes from the bowl at her and she squeals. 

“Pick those up, you dork.” You set the bowl down on her stomach and walk to the kitchen for something strong and loaded with caffeine. “I’m thinking some coffee, maybe an apple, aannndd eggs and bacon. How about you?”

Spades nods through a yawn and jumps onto the counter to help. 

 

 

You and Spades ended up cooking breakfast for the rest of the house too, finishing off the carton of eggs and pack of bacon. Nina set aside an extra plate for the three sleeping Bitties and poured a cup of coffee for her and G. To keep up with the demand for coffee, you had to pour the first batch into an extra teapot and set it over a candle to keep warm. Morgan chuckled at your ingenuity, earning a whiny, lazy, fully-body hug from you that nearly caused both of you to fall from the chair.

Despite a now-full stomach, you’re still tired and fighting yawn after yawn on the couch with Morgan’s top draped over your lap and legs on Alexandria’s. She gives a single yawn that matches yours but otherwise is content to lazily flip through the channels for the rest of the morning.

“Are you even watching anything?” You ask Morgan.

“Nope. Just flipping through.” 

“Give me that, then.” Alexandria shoots up from beside you, knocking Morgan’s legs to the floor as she grabs the remote and turns the television off. 

Morgan is unperturbed by her new location and settles on the floor in front of you as everyone watches the only hyper person in the room run around.

Spades had been lying on your head, buried in the locks and occasionally pulling a strand of hair, but now he slides onto the back of the couch. His weight shifts around the cushion until he lands on your shoulder to watch the commotion. 

As soon as Alexandria flips a switch on your surround sound, you recognized what she was doing. 

You quickly glance at the time and turn to Nina. “Are the Bitties still asleep?”

The purple Monster perks up from her pillow-piled chair and looks over. “Pappy and Blue might be waking up soon. They don’t like to sleep long.” She points to Poppy on the cushion now resting on the coffee table. “Poppy will probably be up soon, too.”

“Good because,” Alexandria pauses for a dramatic effect and clicks the stereo remote. At the first guitar riff, you and Morgan bust out laughing in disbelief. “We’re having a dance party!” Your friend lunges forward and drags you off the couch, sending Spades tumbling and Morgan curling up to avoid getting kicked in the head. 

The first chorus of “Thunder!” beats through the bass speakers and startles Poppy on his pillow. Nina looks between you and Alexandria as the two of you make up dance moves. Morgan sits on the floor with Spades, playing the air-guitar.

“Thunder!”

“I was caught,” Alexandria starts, “In the middle of a railroad track!” She deems the music too low and cranks the volume up again to continue singing. 

You can’t help but laugh at her antics before kneeling to greet a drowsy Poppy. He rubs an eye socket and waves at you before two lean arms drag you up to dance.

“Sing with me!” Alexandria laughs. 

You smile and jump into the song, “And I knew! There was no help, no help from you!” Alexandria joins you on the next verse, Morgan stands to really mime the guitar and Nina can only laugh and clap along to the beat. 

At some point you find Blue and Pappy on the coffee table copying the moves everyone else was doing. G and Nina were dancing together on the other side of the room and Poppy seemed to be explaining something to Spades, who didn’t look happy in the least.

‘Thunderstruck’ rolls to an end and a series of violins start up fast, immediately followed by drum beats. 

You drop to the floor in front of Spades and Poppy on the table and mouth “put on your war paint” along with the song. To the fast beat, you quickly scoop both of them up and dance with them in your arms. There comes a squeal behind you and you turn to see Morgan leading Alexandria through a low dip and pulling her back up into a spin. 

“So we can take the world back from a heart attack.” You sing low.

“One maniac at a time we will take it back.” Morgan follows. The three of you laugh then jump in together.

“So dance alone to the beat of your heart! Hey, Young Blood! Doesn’t it feel like our time is running out? I’m going to change you, like a remix. Then I’ll raise you like a phoenix!”

You raise the two bitties high up as you sing. Spades is standing in your palm, holding onto your thumb and looking a mix of confused and amused. Poppy on the other hand (literally) is laughing and looking nervous as he clings to your thumb with a desperate grip. 

A lull comes in the song were things slow down and you carefully return Poppy to the table and pat his head in apology. He gladly hops down, shoulders sagging with relief, and you return to the dance with Spades. 

Songs come and go as everyone rotates between dancing, singing, laughing, and miming the various instruments. At one point you were dancing with Spades and Pappy, with the both of them laughing and shimmying along. 

When ‘Partners in Crime’ starts to play, Morgan grabs you and leads you through a dance rendition of Bonnie and Clyde. Alexandria acts as the police, shooting finger guns and announcing surrender on her invisible mega phone. 

The climax of the song comes up and the two of you dance back to back, hands raised in mock surrender before linking arms and carefully falling back to lay on one another’s legs, acting like you both were shot and dying together. 

Nina gasps at the song’s story and claps at everyone’s acting at the end, even when the next song starts up and you and Morgan literally fall to the floor, unable to stand from the dramatic position. 

Two verses into the next song, it abruptly stops and chimes a happy alarm. Alexandria groans and falls to her knees behind the couch.

“Nooooo! I have to leeaavvee!” 

You flop flat onto your stomach and laugh at her drama. The dancing had kept you awake for the past hour or so, but now that things have come to an end, your physical exhaustion was making itself known. Spades teleports in front of you and wobbles a moment before falling to his butt. He laughs and then flops onto his stomach to match your pose, nose and nasal bone nearly touching. 

With a last bit of energy, you stretch forward and plant a kiss to his face. He recoils and bats you away then rolls onto his back. 

“You better get going then.” Morgan calls. She flops backwards, landing to sit on your butt and you grunt at the sudden weight. Although she is shorter than you by three inches, she’s stronger than the average person and every ounce of her is muscle.

She shifts in her ‘seat’ and the weight distribution stretches your spine to pop a few lower vertebrae. Spades tilts his head to look at you with wide eyes and you puff some air at his face, which makes him sneeze. 

It takes Alexandria all of five minutes to whine and get ready for work before she’s out the door, promising to return when she’s done.

 

 

The house seems quieter with Alexandria gone but also heavy with sleep. Baby Blue, Pappy, and Poppy were the only three people actually awake and ready to keep playing. Morgan was determined to stay awake for the whole day, despite her own growing weariness. Instead, she promised Nina that she would watch the bitties and set up games to play and movies to watch. Nina hesitated only a little but finally nodded and disappeared into the guest room with G. 

The kitchen was still a mess from breakfast, so you planned to put Spades to bed first then finish cleaning. Your poor boy was too tired to remain sitting on your shoulder, so you cradled him in your arms all the way to the bedroom and tucked him in with his skeleton teddy. 

You had just pulled back the corner of the covers for yourself before someone clears their throat at your door. Looking up, you see Nina quietly motioning at you to come over.

“What’s up?” You tug the bedroom door partway closed as you step out.

Nina continues to motion for you to follow her to your office area before facing you with a smile. 

“I overheard you and Spades yesterday. Sorry for eavesdropping.” She blushes and ducks her head. “But it seems Spades wasn’t having as much trouble as I had originally thought.”

You yawn, then cock your head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“His sentences last night,” She covers a yawn, “they were complete and proper. If he was having trouble adjusting to having a home and being around Monsters and Humans, then we wouldn’t see such a large jump between sentence structure within 24 hours.”

“That was the first time he’s really spoken like that. Even to me.”

Nina hums. “I would like to hypothesize that he may have started talking sooner had we not come over.” Her posture deflates a little at the idea.

“Hm, well, you know more about Bitties than I do, but I trust that you had his best interests at heart. Like you said before, Blackberries are rare. There’s no way to fully know if that would be true or not right now.” You pat her shoulder in what you hope is a comforting manner. 

It seems to work because the bunny monster smiles at you and relaxes. “Ya.” She gives a wry smile. “Still. I think Spades is adjusting fine and will continue to do so without other Bitties here. I was thinking of heading back to the Center tonight instead of tomorrow.”

You nod but your calm and accepting words are drowned out by another yawn. Nina laughs, then yawns as well, which causes both of you to laugh. 

“Geez.” She laughs. “Anyway. I think the sooner we leave, the better your bonds should become. His actions have me second-guessing their strength.” Her gaze passes from you to the bedroom door.

“Wait, what?” This is the first you’ve heard of bonds. 

Nina’s gaze flits back to you. “Uh, your bonds. Soul bond? Family bond?” She pauses. “Do you…not know them?”

“Uh, er, well,” Yes and no? “I’ve heard of them? But, uh, may not know the role they play when it comes to Bitties…”

You watch as her face goes blank for a moment, caught somewhere between several reactions with a polite neutral schooling the features. Then she straightens and seems to take on a different role. “A Bitty is a type of Monster. Their souls are predominantly made of magic and, due to their small stature, are prone to ‘wearing their heart on their sleeve’ if you will. All Monsters are more in tune with their souls and emotions, but bitties are more prone to displaying them openly.”

You felt like you were back at school, listening to a professor explain a book they’ve memorized.

“Due to this, Monsters are able to build relationships faster, and this goes double for Bitties. When a potential family encounters a Bitty ready to be adopted, the two form a tentative bond that will strengthen quickly if given time. If the bond is not strong or one side does not reciprocate the connection, the bond will be severed. Bonds not fully formed, will not cause lasting damage.”

The stiffness in your body mirrored hers, taking upon the role of an active listener. When she finishes her sentence, the proper posture bleeds out of her all at once as she falls back into the Nina you knew.

“Because Blackberries are created from bits of a human’s soul -specifically the adopting human- it was assumed that a bond would already have been established.” 

She pauses in her lecture and blinks at you. It isn’t until her full attention is back on you, that you realize your body is still stiff and attentive. All at once, you relax and give an awkward giggle.

The pause drags until Nina smiles and sighs. “Sorry. Uh, basically, with the way Spades seems to monopolize your attention and reacts roughly, even violently, when he sees you with another Bitty. It’s an extreme response of weak bonds or bonds that have yet to really connect.”

You were half asleep. Not going to lie. You heard half of the words she was saying.

That’s just rude.

“So,” You rub at your forehead. “Do you think Spades is going to be okay? Is there something I can do?”

Nina waves away your words and yawns out, “No, no. We’ll head out tonight.” She covers her mouth and gently pats her check. “I suspect he’ll be better tomorrow with time to bond with you.”

You nod. Nina nods. 

Finally the two of you walk off to take a well needed nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs Referenced:  
> "Thunderstruck" by ACDC  
> "Phoenix" by Fall Out Boy  
> "Partners in Crime" by Set It Off


	15. Home Alone Once Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's just you and Spades at the house. Time to whine down and get ready for the work week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so I want to thank everyone who is reading this, has read this, and will continue to read this. Thank you all so much for your support. The comments and kudos make me so happy!
> 
>  
> 
> On a less happy note: some housing problems have arissen lately and I need to focus everything I have on getting that fixed as soon as I can. So, at worst, this might be the last chapter for a while, at least until January. If things get fixed faster, then I'll upload agian in December, hopefully.

Alexandria was the first to leave yesterday. She came over from work looking very distracted and didn’t react when Nina, Pappy, and Blue greeted her. You and Morgan had shared a look of interest but didn’t mention anything. Sometimes things get… _difficult_  at Alexandria’s work and she loses focus of anything not work-related. 

Spades, Poppy, G and Morgan were helping you braid extra thread that you wanted to use for a project. Pappy and Blue had tried to guess what that project was, but you kept tight-lipped as they listed off guesses. When the front door opened without a knock it drew everyone’s attention as Alexandria came in and paused for a good three minutes before acknowledging Morgan.

“I can’t stay.” She said. “Did you need a ride home or…?”

It seemed so sudden but everyone did their best to take it in stride. Except Blue and Pappy, they tried to ask questions but Alexandria had zoned out while gathering her things. Morgan helped her pack, you grabbed Morgan’s things and then the two were gone.

Nina didn’t want to stay around much longer after that. The Bitties looked excited to be returning to the Adoption Center so soon and you gave them some DVDs to watch with the other Bitties. Nina looked hesitant to take them when you tried to donate them to the shelter, so the two of you settled for letting the Bitties borrow them instead.

With the house suddenly so quiet, an itch began to settle in your hands. You wanted to do something. More than one something; many things. The sudden absence of your guests had you redirecting that energy to cleaning up the living room and prepping food for the rest of the week. Even when night fell and the house sparkled, that itch remained. Though it dulled enough for you and Spades to fall asleep.

 

To claim that you fell asleep quickly would be an understatement. No sooner had your head hit the pillow last night did you black out until the sound of high-pitched beeping jolted you awake in the morning. Spades yelped when you shot up in bed, flailing your arms for a moment and kicking your legs to fight off the sudden shock of the invading sound. When your brain finally caught up to the situation, only then did you slam a hand down onto the alarm and crumble into a heap of limbs and blankets.

“Mmmmmmornin’.” You groaned at Spades with your face against the bedside stand. There was a grunt in answer behind you.

Though your sluggish mind wanted to return to sleep, your body was still circulating an adrenaline high that gave you more energy than you should possess this early in the morning. You basically threw your body to the floor with a half-assed heave and slithered out from the tangle of blankets. Sitting up to peer over the bed, you see Spades curled up on the pillow trying to fall back to sleep.

“Oh no you don’t, mister.” You reach over and pluck him from the pillow, spinning him around to see his face. “Time to wake up.” His sockets were barely open and his eye lights faded around the edges. “Don’t give me that look.” You tease.

He sticks his tongue out at you but starts to stretch at last. You gently place him on the stand and make your bed to really wake up for the day. With everyone gone, this would be a day for just you and Spades to hang out before returning to the office tomorrow. Despite how tired you had been yesterday and the night before, you had managed to get a lot of your work done. Chances were high that someone had emailed you back to describe any typos or punctuation errors you had made, but that was an easy problem to fix.

Bed made and blankets smoothed out, you and Spades rush through a breakfast of yogurt parfaits, fruit, and boiled eggs. As you ate, a sense of phantom limb pain started to build in your hands and fingers. You felt full of excess energy and filled with the desire to get something done again, but the house was already clean.

“Hmm.” You hum to yourself and turn off the sink. The dishes could soak until lunch. Or you could finish them. No, that’s not what you want to do. You wanted…..

Wanted…

With an annoyed huff, you finish the dishes quickly and start walking to the back office area. Maybe you had the itch to finish the work? Spades teleports to your head as you walked down the hallway and holds onto your hair as you looked around. The desk was sitting in the corner, right between two windows with the curtains drawn. It looked innocent, but not inviting. The itch in your hands didn’t want to type. It wanted…

Your gaze slid to closed french doors to the left of the office. What had been marketed as the ‘official’ office area, you had turned into a studio. Wood floors with a separate closet and plenty of space, with the added bonus of closing off the doors to avoid unwanted attention. It was your favorite place to work.

The last time you had done so was probably two months ago.

That would explain the phantom pain and itch in your hands.

You walk up to the wood doors and throw them open to reveal a chaotic mess. Canvases half painted and splattered lay on nearly every available surface and were lined up along the walls. You had two carpets in bright patterns rolled in the corner and carefully covered in a plastic tarp, and the closet door was open with various wood beams and panels tumbling through the doorway.

It was a mess, but it was a mess you created.

“Wow. It looks crazy in here.” You stepped inside to evaluate the space and something twitches under your foot.

You flinch but before you could jump away a cloud of white smoke and fresh linen scent engulfs you. The yelp of surprise turned into a sputtering cough as you accidently inhaled the baby powder. Stumbling backwards into the office area, you fall to your butt and sneeze four times before giving one hard cough.

“Wh-“ cough. “What?” Hack.

In the center of your studio where you had stood lay a pile of baby powder. More of the substance was floating through the air and covering everything with a fine layer. When you looked up, you saw a pair of sandwich bags torn open and leaking the last of the white substance. After one last sneeze, you also noticed laughter.

Deep belly laughter.

“Spades!” You whip around to find him doubled over on your desk, using a binder for support. The embarrassment and shock in your voice is his undoing as he finally falls to his knees laughing.

“You little punk!” His laughter gives way to your laughter and soon you’re laying on the floor accepting your fate.

The last of the powder settles to the floor and Spades teleports by your head, stumbling upon landing because he’s still laughing. You roll over to smile and laugh with him but when he is close enough, you dump the pile of baby powder collected on your arm over his head.

He sputters and sneezes but laughs at the retaliation.

“I guess we need a shower now.” You pick up your bitty, jostling him around a little as pay back. He laughs and teleports from one hand to the other, avoiding your grasp while still being in your hands. Once you reach the bedroom, he teleports to the shelves and hides behind the decorations you have up there.

You laugh and tease him; pretending to reach up to grab him and causing him to run from one cover to the next. At the end of the shelf he jumps onto the dresser and sprints behind a picture frame before you can get him.

You yank the frame from the dresser top and snap your hand forward to catch him. Only to close on empty air.

He’s gone.

“Where did you go?” You smile and look around.

Laughter comes from the bathroom and you turn to enter then survey the room. The shower curtain moves and you rush to yank them open. Spades jumps at the sight of you before quickly teleporting away before you can catch him.

“Get back here, munchkin!” You spin around to lunge at him on the sink. He jumps out of reach and you quickly follow after. Each time you get close, he teleports half a foot away and jumps onto something else.

After a few minutes he tires out and you catch him before he jumps onto your bed.

“Aha! I win!” You hug him close as you both laugh, then clutch onto him and give him a kiss. “Kiss attack!” He squeaks as you pepper his skull and arms in kisses. His little hands reaching out to block the assault but you ultimately win with one final kiss to his forehead.

“Okay.” You chuckle. “Shower time.” Luckily, it had been a lazy morning and you had yet to change out of your night clothes. A quick shower and change later and the two of you were looking at the mess you made through the house.

Fine powder and white hand prints covered much of the surfaces you and your bitty had ran around. The bedroom carpet bore ghostly footprints and your dresser looked like you just pulled it from an abandoned shed.

“Hm, I guess we’re cleaning the house again today.” That phantom itch pulsed through your hands again. “But I want to draw….” You pause to think. “How about we…..paint for a little while, then clean.”

You look to Spades for confirmation, which he gives with a smirk, and the two of you head back to the studio. Ignoring the pile of powder scattered around the floor, you head to the closet to pull a pack of five 8x8 inch canvases from a shelf and tear it open.

The table closest to the window has the least amount of powder on it so you wipe away what little powder there is and lay out the canvas to gather the paints. When you collect the palette and palette knife from the stand by the easel, you notice little hand prints in the dry paint. They’re small and obviously Spades’ boney hands, but you know that you haven’t had wet paint in here for over a month.

“Hey Spades?” You turn to see him ripping the excess plastic from some of the canvases. At his name, he looks up but doesn’t pause in his self-assigned task. “Were you in here before?”

That gives him pause and he studies you a moment before he smiles and gives a hard nod.

“You were? When?” Obviously he had been in here, but it wasn’t something you had considered before. You study the hand prints again and find more along the stand top and even on the floor before the paint fades away. “When did you…uh. When were you born?”

Your Bitty looks confused and teleports over to the stand you were looking at. He finds the hand prints quickly and follows them along the stand to the floor. After a moment he blinks and looks to you, “Don’t know the day, but I been here a while.”

Humming, you show him the palette of dried paints. “Long enough to play with wet paint?”

He studies the palette and smiles. “Yup“

“Yes? Spades, I haven’t had wet paint in here for over a month! Not since I painted everything on the floor right now.” You motion to all the canvas around the room.

You’re confused and slightly concerned which seems to make Spades uneasy. “I watched you paint.” He mumbles.

“You watched me?” He nods, looking a bit tense and uncertain. You’re thoughts are racing with questions that aren’t fully formed before flitting back through memories.

You had a been intensely focused on a series of paintings at the beginning of summer. Yael had to call you every morning just to get you to come into work because you had lost track of time. Nathan came by to visit more often, even Morgan made sure to stop by to make you lunches. You had been all-consumed. There was nothing getting in your way. You don’t even think you did laundry that month.

Just remembering the smell of your laundry caused you to scrunch your nose. That whole month you may have been focused intently on any canvas or sketch page that lay in front of you, but neither you nor your guests had mentioned seeing anything or befalling a prank.

Standing taller, you spin to survey the whole room. Where could Spades have sat to watch you while staying hidden from sight? Tables and shelves were around average height and you could see the tops of every one of them. Drawers, maybe? You look down to see everything shut and unmarked by little skeleton handprints.

If he wasn’t down, then maybe he was up? Your gaze immediately flips to the tallest thing in your studio; a bookcase lined with art books. The top of the wooden case was only half a foot from the ceiling and far too tall for you to view it.

You take a moment to set down everything in your hands and pull a stool over to the bookcase. Even standing on the stool, you were short of the top but you did catch something.

A tiny handprint in dark blue paint curling over the edge of the bookcase.

Spades had been hiding here.

“Spades!” You spun to your little Bitty and scooped him up. “You’ve been here two whole months before I knew you existed!?” He flinches in your hands and you twitch at his reaction. “Spades?”

“Sorry?”

Your throat constricted and everything outside of you and Spades fell away. He was slightly curled into himself, eye sockets wide and watching you like a nervous prey. He was scared.

“H-hey.” You choke. “I’m sorry. It’s nothing bad, I’m just worried. And confused. And a little scared.” When your body relaxes, his relaxes as well. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just…how could you have been here for so long without me noticing? Am I a bad owner? Or just…bad at caring for you?” The thought hadn’t truly occurred to you that you might be a bad caretaker until the words left your mouth.

How could he have been living with you for over a month? Had he eaten? Where did he sleep? Was he ever scared?

“You are not bad, Mimi.” Spades finally spoke. “I just did not want…”

You waited for him to continue, but he started flexing his hands and looking around. “You didn’t want what?”

He looked up at you, the yellow in his eyes seeming to out-weigh the red rings. “Didn’t want..to..be found.”

He didn’t want to be found? “Why?”

Spades shrugged his shoulders and sat back in your hands. You accommodate him by curling your fingers so he could lean back then you sat on the floor yourself.

“I’m…so confused. And sad.” You gave a weak laugh. “I wish I had known you were there.” He had been wandering all alone. “Did you get enough to eat? What about injuries? You never hurt yourself, did you?”

You started lifting his arms up and double-checking them for any cracks or breaks you might have missed. He was still and relaxed in your hold for a while before he pulled his arms free and snapped his fingers.

Something bumped into the back of your head, lurching you forward and refocusing your attention.

“Hey!” You turn to look but find nothing there. “What did you-!"

There’s a thing next to Spades. Some black skull with a long snout and glitchy red eyes.

“What is that?” It was about a quarter of Spades’ size with long, sharp fangs on the top and bottom. With another snap of his fingers, the floating skull-thing disappeared. “Wha-what?! No! What was that?!”

Spades just shrugs again. “Don’t know. I control it. Had more, but the cat broke them all.”

What? Cat? Broke?

It was a good thing you were sitting down already because you felt every last ounce of your blood run cold and your limbs go numb.

“DID I HURT YOU??!!” Panic flooded your mind. The cat! Alexandria’s cat hurt Spades’ magic things!? What?! “The cat broke your magic?! Are you okay?! Can I- Oomph.”

The skull thing reappeared and rammed into your chin, effectively shutting your mouth through pain and force. It vanished upon impact and the lingering magic left a strange tingle across your skin. You whine at Spades while rubbing the injury.

“It’s fine. I’m not weak, Mimi. They will come back when magic recharges.”

“Recharges?” You brain was still a scrambled mess with questions and concerns all vying for your attention, but you really didn’t want to get punched in the chin again.

Spades reads the confliction on your face and smiles wide in mocking. The jerk. “Just sleep and food, Mimi. I am strong.”

His teasing tone with comforting words ease your mind a little and you give him a wry smile. “Okay, then.” A quick peck to his head and you focus on painting again.

“Did he say how low his magic was?”

You mumble a noise in the negative over the phone while scrubbing down the kitchen counters. The scent of lemon and lemongrass flit through your nose.

Nina clicks her tongue in thought, then sighs. “It’s true that a Monster can get low on magic. It’s also true that Monsters can recharge their magic with rest and eating food, but it has to be magic-infused food to do any real good. Do you have anything like that?”

“Magic-infused food?” Nina confirms and you leave the rag to search the cabinets. “I don’t know; I usually buy whatever I need for recipes and some things I’d like to try.” Two cabinets hold standard human food in cans, boxes, bottles, or shakers. In your tea and coffee cabinet, you find some monster-brand tea. “I have some ‘Golden Flower Tea’ apparently.” You set it aside and continue searching.

“Good. That will work wonderfully. Anything else?”

Cabinets reviewed, you poke your head into the fridge to find a few leftovers, milk, and vegetables and fruit for future meals. The freezer proves lacking as well. “Looks like that’s it. Just the tea.”

Your friend huffs. “Well, that will do for now. Has he been acting any different?”

“Uhh.” You…don’t really have enough experience to say for certain but, “No. He seems fine. He’s asleep on the kitchen table right now.”

“The table?”

Glancing at Spades draws a quiet laugh from you. “Ya. He’s on a pillow. I’ve dressed him up like a little prince so he looks like a little Sleeping Beauty right now.”

Nina laughs on the other side of the line and you step closer to fix the paper crown you crafted on top of his head. Cute.

“Well, if he seems fine, then I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I’ll let Dr. --- know what you’ve told me so he can make notes. Serve up some of that Golden Flower tea tonight to help him get some magic back. Call --- if Spades starts showing strange signs or if you have more questions.”

“Okay. Thank you so much.” She bids you a good day and the call cuts off. You finish cleaning the counters and return to your bedroom to start wiping down any flat surfaces there.

An hour goes by, finding you dusting the living room, when a cooking alarm goes off. Dropping the window-cleaner and towels, you run to turn it off and check the stew on the stove. It’s time to add the last ingredients and set things to a simmer.

There’s a rustling behind you, then, “Mimi?”

You peak over a shoulder to smile at your little Bitty. “Morning Spades. Did you have a nice nap?” He’s sitting on the pillow looking at the red fabric that acts like a cape, his crown fallen to the side. “I’ve turned you into a Prince. You were my little Sleeping Beauty.”

He glances at you, the cape, then the crown before settling a curious look on you. “Huh?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll introduce you to Disney movies tonight.” Maybe you’ll start with Sleeping Beauty so he understands what you were referencing, but you also like to introduce someone to the franchise with The Lion King.

“Dinner will be done in ten minutes if you want to wash up first.” You stood aside and started to wash your hands as well. When Spades teleports to the counter, you give him some soap and start gathering plates. “I switched the juice for tea tonight and there are an assortment of cookies we can snack on with the movie. We’ll have to pack a lunch for tomorrow before that though, so keep in mind anything you like, okay?”

The water is shut off but you don’t get an answer from the Bitty. You set the table in silence, ready the tea and set out an extra plate for the cookies later before Spades returns. He teleports to your head first and places what feels like a ring on your hair then teleports to the table.

The object on your head sounds like paper as it brushes against your hair and weighs next to nothing, causing it to almost fall off when you turn to him. When you reach up to straighten it, you feel little spikes on the front side and know that he just made a larger version of his crown for you.

“Thank you, Spades.” You stand proudly. “We are now Royalty. My first decree! We will watch ‘The Lion King’ after dinner.”

“Yes!” Spades cheers. Both of you giggle and settle down to eat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 6 pages 3,400+ words


	16. Off to Work We Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for Spades' first day at work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you beautiful people! First, let me say Thank You So Much for being patient with me this past month. I had intended to start uploading chapters on a weekly basis until the housing situation cropped up but we can start on that again! There were moments where I though "hey, things are good. I can upload a chapter today." Wrong. I made myself hold off because we didn't have anything set in stone yet, regardless of how well things were looking at the time. Thankfully, the wait is now, mostly, over. 
> 
> There is one thing I can ask of you guys, even though you have already been so patient. 
> 
> Please, continue to be patient with me. I don't know how the next few weeks or even the Christmas Holiday will be for my family. You see, I went to visit my dad's house on Saturday and see all of my little siblings (we have a split family). Well, one of my brother's best friends was visiting too and we joked and talked a bit because they're in their late teens now. It was fun. I learned a lot about him. And then I find out that, two hours after I left, the boy dies in a wreck.
> 
> 17-years-old. That boy had just signed up to study Criminal Science college courses, planned on joining the Army, and joked and bragged about Fortnite on his phone. He was a good kid and I'm still shocked at the loss. I'm going to be there for my little brother without a doubt, but it also has me crying at random intervals and has affected my sleep a bit. 
> 
> So, I will continue to upload chapters and I will still aim to do so weekly, but if I miss a day, please bear with me for this holiday season. 
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Now for some cute! Because I just dragged everyone down....

Morning comes too early after waking up at all hours of the day this week. Spades groans in annoyance as you roll over to stop the alarm and then roll back to curl around him. 

“Mmm, time to get up.” But you don’t move and stay laying wrapped around the little Monster. He breathes out a huff in answer but you don’t know what it means. The two of you lay there another ten seconds before you throw your arms up with a dramatic sigh. 

The words of false morning excitement die when you accidently punch the headboard with your knuckles, sending a shot of pain down to your wrist. Spades jumps up when you cry out and you nearly whack him in the back of the skull when you move to cradle your hand.

“Ah! Sorry.” You hiss in pain and flick your wrist back and forth to increase blood flow to the area. Spades stands aside when you sit up, but immediately crawls onto your lap to get a look at your hand. It’s red, deep red. It’ll probably bruise but that would be the worst of it once the initial pain subsides. 

“Dang. I really knocked it hard.” Spades leans up to see, pulling at your hand, so you show him your knuckles. “See? The first two fingers there are a deep red. They’ll probably bruise but it won’t hurt after another five minutes or so.”

At least he isn’t panicking. “Bruise?”

“Uh, it’ll turn purple and probably swell a bit but that’s okay.” You blow on the knuckles in a vain attempt to soothe the ache. “Eh, I’ll get some ice. Good morning, Spades.”

He huffs at you with a flat look but jumps out of your way so you can make the bed. In the kitchen, you find Spades already digging through the freezer, grabbing the ice cube tray. “I’ll get a baggy.” You snatch a sandwich bag from one of the lower shelves  and Spades pulls it from you so you can focus on prepping some breakfast.

The night before you and Spades had made enough oatmeal for two days and you remove a container marked for today. You divvy the container between you and Spades, then pop the two bowls into the microwave. Not a second later, Spades pulls your hand away to place an overly stuffed bag of ice onto your still throbbing knuckles. 

You can’t help but laugh a little. “Thank you, Spades. Just what I needed.” You adjust it to fit better and stand a moment to let the cold seep in. “Now we need drinks.”

“I got it.” Spades calls. 

“Huh?” You are surprised by his declaration and watch as he teleports by the electric kettle to start the water. Then he’s in the cabinet grabbing two mugs and placing them on the table. He grabs two sets of silverware, tea bags, an apple, the bread and butter, then stands next to you before the microwave beeps.

He’s sweating a little and breathing hard. “Uh..you okay?”

The little Bitty pulls to his full eight-inch height and puffs out his chest. “Yup.” You feel the need to question him further, given how hard he was breathing, but he seems to settle right back down. Maybe it was the magic-equivalent of sprinting for a minute? One last review of him and you deem him fine. 

Breakfast is quick and distracted. You try to explain the office and its layout to Spades but he doesn’t understand half of what your saying. He seems to recognize some of the words but without context, he probably doesn’t understand. You explain to him what a ‘print shop’ is and the difference between digital and traditional media. What is a ‘hard copy’, a ‘soft copy’, a draft, sketch, proof, and a mock-up. Then you start listing the programs the office uses and Spades laughs at the last one. 

“What? Cucumber is a real program!” Even if it did sound ridiculous. “I don’t actually know too much about the digital side. I’m more traditional myself.”  

A chime goes off on your phone signaling the encroaching timeline to catch the first bus. It’s the first warning alarm so you quickly dump the plate and bowls in the sink then grab your stuff. With Spades safely tucked against your neck and wrapped in an extra hoodie against the rain, you run with the work bag in one hand and a packed lunch in the other. You’re early for the first bus but barely catch the second bus that drops you off outside the office building twenty minutes later. 

Pants heavy with rain and running shoes soaked, you still smile up at the large, concrete building in front of you. It’s one of the older buildings in the city, with little in the way of flashy architecture. The exposed columns of the building are grooved with a vertical pattern and the floors are some type of old wood carefully sealed against the weather. Inside, the owners kept many of the traditional lighting fixtures but modified them to hold more energy-efficient bulbs instead. 

“Ta-da!” You wave the packed lunch before you. “Welcome to Clover Designs! We work on design, advertisement, and printing.” You walk and talk at the same time to escape the rain, then turn to a private closet to the left of the triangular welcome desk.

“Hey, Wizard! Where you been all week?” A burly white man greets you from behind the desk. 

You unlock the door then wave back at him. “Hey Javan! Adopted a Bitty and needed to stay home for a while. What did I miss?”

His voice dulls as you enter to switch your wet shoes for the dry ones you keep hidden away, but he speaks louder to make up the difference. “Been crazy here! Phone calls every hour of the day, meetings, conference calls. Should have called Cheyenne back from vacation!” He jokes and laughs a bit. 

You slip on the neat work shoes and lock the closet behind you, shifting your work bag on to your empty left shoulder. Javan is leaning over an empty spot on the desk and searching your bags. “You said something about a Bit-ey! There it is!”

Spades flinches at your neck but doesn’t hide as the man’s deep blue eyes land on him. Javan’s smile grows wider and motions for you to come closer. You laugh and step up to the raised desk-top next to him. 

“Spades, this is Javan. Javan, this is my Blackberry Bittybones, Spades.”

Your bitty says nothing, not that you expected him to, and leans forward to study the man before him. 

Javan, on the other hand, cheers loudly and swings back in his seat to open his arms wide in welcome. “Hey! Welcome to work, little guy! Gotta say, you hiding in the jacket like that is adorable.” Spades huffs at him. “Aw, c’mon, cute stuff. You gotta have fun while at work, okay? Why don’t you give a smile?” 

There’s a pause before Javan starts laughing and you look down in time to see Spades’ tongue pop back into his mouth. 

“Ya, fair enough. Can’t say it’s been too fun around here lately. Poor Yael has been bustin’ a nut to finish-“ His face goes red as you laugh loudly at his Freudian slip.

“I’m sorry. What was that?” You smile and lean forward to tease him. “Got something on your mind? Anything you want to say?” 

Javan notices the teasing glint to your eye and leans back in his chair. “Nope. Nothing.” He declares and crosses his arms. 

You lean further on the elevated desk and give your best sly smile. “Oh, I know you did. Javan, darling, is there…  _ something _ on your mind?” You emphasis the last few words and work in a sultry tone.

A smile of his owns stretches across his face and he leans closer to you, challenging you. “Maybe I did. What’s it to ya?”

Javan is already close to your personal space, less than eighteen inches. Still, you lean closer and tilt your head up and to the left. “Aw come now, darling. I can’t help you if you don’t speak up. What are friends for?”

All but a few millimeters of space remain between the two of you as Javan slowly stands from his desk chair. You’re waiting and watching for a cue that he’ll back down first. Unfortunately, it seems he is determined to make you back down today as he locks eyes with you and licks his lips. 

Damn him. 

He opens his mouth to speak before jerking back violently. 

You leap away from the desk and look around to find an intruder or something wrong, but everything looks empty and normal. There’s a shuffling at your chest and you look down to see Spades clinging to your shirt, trying to climb back up. 

“Hey, uh, sorry about that Spades.” You help him back to your shoulder. “What just happened?”

Javan is hunched over behind his desk and you have to walk around it to enter from the back. When you reach for him, familiar blue strings wrap your hand and lightly tug it back towards your shoulder. 

“Spades?”

Javan looks up and you see the same blue magic wrapped around his mouth, gagging him. 

Your mind goes blank at the sight and you look to Spades to see him looking at you somewhat annoyed. When your eyes meet, the magic around your hand disappears and you flex your fingers. You struggle to process the situation as you look between Spades’ unhappy face and Javan now standing and rubbing at the blue magic. 

“Spades, you…?” You look to him and he meets your eyes steadily. “D-did you.” There’s a blush on his bones. 

His pupils are smaller and he’s slowly crossing his arms right in front of you.

“You…y-you..” You bust out laughing and have to catch Spades as he falls from your shoulder with a squeak. “Did you stop us from kissing?” A snort comes from above you and you look to see Javan smiling and shoulders shaking. 

Spades’ blush deepens but he looks too confused to complete his sentences. “You…and he was! But!”

You steal Javan’s rolling desk chair, pulling it close to place Spades on the cushion and move to help rub at the magic strings binding the taller man’s jaw shut. 

“We weren’t going to kiss!” You laugh and Javan’s shoulders shake harder. “W-we were teasing each other.”

“Teasing? But it looked..” Spades remains sitting on the chair, but he doesn’t look calm or happy, just confused and maybe a little annoyed.

“I know. I’m sorry, I didn’t think about how you would perceive that.” You try to wiggle a fingernail under a single string of magic but it holds tight and all you do is bend a nail. “Javan and I are really good friends so we joke with each other like that. Flirt, tease, romantic touches. But we don’t actually like each other like that.” Javan’s fingers come up to pry between his skin and the magic while you start looking around his head to find a weak spot. 

“So… friends?” You look to Spades. He’s sitting in the center of the large chair and looking to all the world as a very lost child in class. 

You smile and abandon Javan to kneel beside the chair to cup a hand around your bitty. “Yup. Just friends. Albeit some weird friends.”

His nasal bone scrunches up. “Real weird.”

He stands and reaches out to you as you laugh at his response. When you pick him up, you plant a quick kiss to his skull and return focus to the muted man. 

“Can you remove your magic, please?” Javan hums and looks to Spades expectantly. 

The little Bitty looks back at him then turns to you. “Why?”

The question is so innocent and confused that you can’t help but laugh out loud. Javan acts out a pose of betrayal and raises the back of his hand to his forehead. 

“C’mon, Spades. You can’t leave him like that forever. It wouldn’t be nice.”

“Nice?” The bitty snaps his fingers and the magic vanishes. “Why does that matter?”

That question takes you aback. “Uh, well, because..” You look to Javan for help. 

Javan is a really nice guy. He would know a good way to explain ‘nice’. 

Right?

“Uh, well…” Javan stumbles and your hope sinks a bit. “Just, uh, just think of it like this.” He leans over to look at Spades closely. “Whatever you do to someone else, it gives them the impression that they can do it back to you. So it goes to assume, that if you’re nice to someone, then they’ll be nice back.”

Oooo good point.

“Treat others how you want to be treated.” You repeat the popular phrase and smile at your Bitty. “Okay?”

Spades’ wide eyes look to you, Javan, and back before he hums and teleports to your head again. Javan straightens up and smiles at him before returning to his chair. That seems to be the end of this conversation for now and you bid Javan a good day before turning to make your way up the stairs.

There is a small security window in the stairwell door that leads to the main office on the third floor. You pause to look through it and to give Spades an idea of what things look like. There are two people lightly jogging from one side of the room to the other, a group of people leaning over a table littered with papers in the back corner, and various tablets and laptops scattered around the remaining tables. 

“Ready?” You call up to Spades.

He waits in silence for one….two….three seconds before you here an uncertain ‘ya’ in reply. You give him an encouraging head rub and open the door. 

“Oh thank Satan you’re here!” 

You don’t even make it past the first desk before Taylor pounces on you and pulls you into a tight, bone-crushing hug. Spades scrambles to stay balanced on your head, then lays flat to slide onto Taylor’s forehead and kick him away.

“Ow, hey!” Your bitty free-falls for about two seconds before he is right back on top of your head, glaring at the man before you. 

Rather than explain anything about Spades, you ask, “Satan?”

Without missing a beat, the man answers “The other gods weren’t doing anything. It was time to bring in the professionals.” 

You cough out a laugh. “Professionals, huh?”

“Of course! You always here people crediting Satan and demons to big things. They have quite the rapport. Anyway, what?” Without pausing from one topic to the next, Taylor points his thick finger at Spades.

“This is my Bittybones, Spades.”

“Oh good!” Without warning, Yael sweeps in from your left and pulls you away. “Hi Taylor. Hi little Bitty. Wizard, you need to work your magic in the print shop, we are falling behind!” As quickly as he appeared, Yael pushes you to the elevator and disappears through the maze of desks calling out for design leaders. 

You feel Spades jump when Taylor leans forward on your right side to hit the elevator button for you. “Have fun down there! Hi Spades.” Then he leaves as well.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2556 words, 6 pages
> 
> Have a good week guys! <3


	17. Depths of The Office

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You teach Spades about the print shop and get some work done together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again beautiful people!
> 
> Home life is starting to calm a bit and I really frickin' hope it stays this way!
> 
> I hope all of you are having a good December so far <3

“Okay, I have to warn you that the print area is going to be loud. Especially if they have all the printers, cutters, and folders running.”

“What does that mean? Cutters? Folders?” Spades’ voice echoes a bit in the old elevator. 

“It’s the name we call the equipment based on what it does. I need you to be very careful in here too, Spades. Okay? There are a lot of places you can get hurt. A lot of big or heavy machinery.”

The bitty gives a deep hum but stays quiet as the lit button marked ‘B’ goes dark. The elevator comes to a slow stop but the doors slide open even as the mechanism is still lowering the last three inches to the floor level. The thicker doors had prevented a fair amount of the sound from coming through but once they are open and you take a step forward, you hear the sounds of various machinery running.

You barely catch an awed “Whoa” from Spades at his spot on your head and chuckle as you make your way to the lines of desks in the center of the room. Each table is piled high with boxes, papers, posters, or other marketing propaganda with two dedicated people running between the stacks to check them over. 

At the end of the first table are a box of disposable ear plugs and you grab two for yourself. Next to that box are what looks like rubber bands of various sizes lined with cotton, alongside cotton balls and tiny hats. You grab a tiny plastic hat lined with rubber and two pads of cotton on the sides and hand it to Spades.

“Here.” You call over the noise. “You need to put this on to protect your hearing.”

The object is pulled from your fingers then you take a moment to look around. Three of the five printers are running, while one has a side door opened and paper scattered on the floor. The fifth printer has the front door wide open with various tools laid out in front of it and under the doors, you can see the bright orange shoes you are looking for.

As you make your way over, you carefully pluck Spades from your head and place him onto your shoulder instead. You lean over the wide doors of the copier and spot Zenith half buried in the guts of the equipment.

“Hey Z.” You shout. The skinny man flinches but doesn’t extract himself from his work. “I’m here to help. What’s the status?”

“Fucking hell, Wiz. We might as well be wearing life jackets.”

You hum and nod although he can’t see you. “Okay, so, you could be doing better? Got it. Where do you need me?”

Finally, the bright orange sneakers squeak and roll back as Zenith pulls from the inner workings of the machine and wipes his hands. “Plague and War are in the middle of a big job. I need you to grab the books from Death and start binding them all pretty like.” 

“On it.”

“Thanks. Make sure there’s 250 when you’re done.” You see the boy’s eyes flick to Spades for only a second before he dives back into the printer.

You leave the printer named Steve and pass by the printer named Famine to grab a rolling cart to carry your work on. The first printer, named Death, has stopped printing and sounds like it is running a cool-down sequence after the large job it finished. There are four stacks of printed books beside it and a final stack still on the print tray. You grab the pile on the tray first then set to work loading the other four stacks onto your cart and wheeling them over to a finishing table for binding.

“Okay Spades.” In each stack of prints, the books are offset so you can easily separate and work on them. You pull a small stack of about eight books and start to separate them. “We are going to put covers on these, then use this big machine to punch and bind it all.” You slap a hand on top of a 19-inch black machine. It probably weighs 90 pounds and it awkward to hold, carry, or even move, which is why this table became ‘the binding table’. 

“Okay!” Your bitty looks ready to work and moves toward the book closest to him. 

“First,” You pause and look around. “We need to find the print ticket that goes with this job. Look for a blinding blue piece of paper.” 

The paper stacks yield only white paper and cardstock so you rush over to the printer to find the ticket laying on the top output tray. 

“Here we are.” Spades walks over to stand in front of you as you return to the table and looks over the paper you set down. “Okay, so these are what our job tickets look like. We print them on this special ‘highlighter’ blue paper so they still out really well.” You point to a line of eight numbers at the top of the page. “This is the job number. The computer systems track each job as they come in and assign them a number. This is important because you have to change the status of each job as they progress through the printing process.” 

To the right of the table is a very small and simple touch pad. You flick a finger over it to wake it from sleep mode and motion to Spades. “This is the home screen and each of these icons represent the different offices in this building.” You click on the icon with a ‘P’ on a curling piece of paper with three holes punched in the side. “This one is for the Print Shop. When you click it, it pulls up a list of jobs assigned for printing and their current statuses. Those in bold font haven’t been started yet.” You scroll through the screen to get an idea of the workload. 

Spades jumps up and points when the job number you two are working on scrolls past. “There! That one.”

You smile at him. “Right, perfect.” Selecting the job brings up a simplified version of your print ticket. At the top left corner is a drop down menu that you tap. “Here it says ‘Printing’ but we are going to change it to ‘Binding’. This way if anyone needs to know where the job is, they know right where to look.” The menu drops down, you change the status, then turn back to the stacks of paper. “According to the ticket, they want a beveled cover and stiff red backing.” 

The top cardstock of the left-most pile slips as Spades tugs at it and looks to you. “Is this beveled?”

“Yup.” You run a finger over the raised lettering. “You can feel it here. Plus the paper is a lot thicker than the rest.” He runs his hand over the letters to feel the texture as you reach up to grab a stack of red plastic boards from the shelves above the table. “These are the backs. Just some stiff, colored plastic.” 

Grasping the first book in the stack, you add the red backing to it and jog it against the table to make the left edges line up neatly. You cast a glance and smile at Spades and motion to the binding machine as you take as step in front of it. 

“Okay, from here,” You bend down to show Spades the plastic drawers below the table, “we find a size of spiral that will fit the book and matches the color requested.” The book is probably only thirty sheets thick and would fit inside the smallest coil with plenty of room to spare. “We’ll use the 5 millimeter red coil for this job.” Spades returns to your shoulder to see what you’re doing and lets out a noise of surprise when the drawer pulls out further than he thought it would. “Heheh, ya, these coils are long so we can bind almost any type of page size. With standard paper though, we can use one coil to bind three books.”

You place everything on top of the table next to the binding machine and show your bitty how to start the coil on the rollers before taking the book in hand again. 

“Alright, so this slot on the top will punch holes into the paper and then we will roll the spine onto it with these rollers down here. At the end of everything, we will crimp the ends and box them up.” The bitty nods in understanding so you move forward with jogging the small book again, placing it in the top slot along the long edge and hit the foot pedal on the ground to punch the holes. There is a loud crunching sound as the metal die are forced through the paper.

Spades jumps a little, “What was that?”

“That was the die punching the holes into the paper.” You lift the book from the slot and show him the new row of small holes along the edge. “It’s a loud noise when it punches but it’s much louder when you turn on the rollers.” You flip a switch on the side of the machine and the rollers start spinning with a constant, loud hum. “See?”

He steps closer to watch you wind the coil into the first hole, then press the coil against the rollers. In a quick motion, the coil springs to life and snakes through the remaining openings only to stop just passed the edge of the paper. You pull the book away from the rollers and cut the rest of the coil from the new spine of the book.

“There we go.” Spades takes a step forward to look closer at the rollers and the coils before following you to the other side of the table. “After that,” You pick up a pair of special crimping pliers and clip one of the ends. “We cut and bend the ends so the spine holds everything together.” Tossing the completed book to the side, you and Spades return to the stacks of unfinished books.

The two of you quickly fell into a routine of you separating each of the books in the stack for Spades to add the red back. When a new stack piled high beside the finishing machine, you moved over to start punching and binding the books. Spades took the job of crimping the ends and tossing the completed books into a box on the floor. With the power of teamwork, all 250 books were completed in about two and a half hours.

it took two trips to carry the full boxes to the center tables for quality check. Your little bitty rode on your shoulder until you sat down at an empty computer desk.

"What are yaw doing now?" he asked from the desktop.

“I’m checking the due times.” You explain to him. As the computer sorts by date at your command, Spades is absently digging through all the items on top of the desk before pausing in front of a Venus flytrap.

“Careful. It bites.” You warn with a smile.

He pauses to look confused at the trap in front of him, then slowly reaches inside. He pokes the red, fleshy leaf and jerks his hand back quickly. The plant does nothing and Spades shoots you a confused look. You watch as he pokes it twice more in various places before simply grabbing the leaf edge and tugging it. 

“It doesn’t bite.” Spades argues.

You chuckle and reach over him to point at six stems inside the trap. “See these? You have to sort of ‘activate’ them so the plant registers that there is something inside the trap.”

A little hand reaches forward to brush one stem, pause, then brush the same stem again.

“Like this.” You reach forward and brush one stem, then slowly brush a second stem. The leaves of the trap quickly clamp shut, startling Spades, and lightly pinches your finger.

“My finger is too big for it to hold on to.” You slowly pull from the trap and its interlocking fringes. “If it were a bug, it would be trapped in there and the plant would start to eat it.”

“A plant eats bugs?” 

You hum. “Yup. Some do, but not many.” Studying the plant, you see that one of the stems is starting to darken as it eats itself. You turn to call to Zenith at the one of the back closets. “Hey, Z. When was the last time you fed your plant?”

Zenith and a red-haired boy both poke their heads from the closet. “He’s been fed. Don’t let him fool you.”

“One of the stems is turning dark.” You shout back.

Zenith returns to the closet, “Drama King.”

You chuckle and return to work. Spades starts poking a second trap, mimicking the technique you used, but he waits a little too long between the first and second touch so it takes him three tries to set off the trap. He gives a surprised yelp but then giggles and moves to another trap. 

“Okay, silly.” You pull his attention back to you. “It looks like there are five jobs being finished and four jobs printing.” There is a high-pitched squeal as Tally drills five holes into a stack of papers. “One printer is down right now, but another it almost done with a job. So I’m going to show you how to send a job to print, okay?” The bitty literally hops back over to you and flops to lay his stomach on your arm . You smile wide at his antics and start explaining what you are doing.

  
  


Spades falls asleep an hour before lunch time. Though you aren’t sure how he does that with all the screaming, grinding, and squealing machines around him. Zenith orders all but two people out of the print shop for lunch and promptly slams the elevator call button before returning to work himself. 

Tammy laughs and shakes her head but steps into the elevator where most of the people lean on the walls or even sit down.

“Tired?”

Tammy is leaning against a railing and gives an over dramatic sigh. “It’s been like this all week. All I feel are my throbbing feet.” There are a few agreements to her complaint.

“No room to judge, anyway. Isn’t your bittybones passed out right now?” Stanley asks.

You check the sleeping bitty cupped in your hands. “Ya. He’s out.” Spades curls tighter against your stomach. “Wasn’t judging anyway. Just asking.”

“Suuurree.”

The elevator dings and you check the floor. It’s too early for the cafeteria which means someone is getting picked up so you stand aside. The doors for the second floor are stuck and everyone waits in the silence for them to open. Thirty seconds later, they jerk wide and pause for a second before opening fully.

“Hey, the goblins are sleeping again.” A tall man with brown hair teases as he steps over everyone’s legs.

“I thought we were moles.”

“Nah. Assassins.”

“Hiding away in the underground.”

You snort. “Sounds like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

“Oh! I’m Raph!”

“Aw! I wanted tah be Raph.”

“I’ll be Mikey.”

“I’ll be the sexy girl turtle.”

“You’re a guy..”

“I make a hot turtle. What can I say.”

Everyone laughs as the elevator finally comes to a stop on the fifth floor at the cafeteria. The crowd disembarks, one person even crawling out on hands and knees, and scatter across the expansive room for tables or food. 

You head for one of the many refrigerators and gently shake Spades awake in your hand. He groans as he wakes but perks up at the sight of a new area.

“Hey sleepy. Lunch time.” 

“Yo, Wizard!” You turn to see Taylor. “Sit with me and we can chat about boys.”

You grin. “Boys?”

“Only the cute ones though.” He winks and goes to pick out a table. 

It takes you a few moments to fumble through the sea of boxed lunches to find your lunch pack. Then you walk to a nearby counter to gather a fork and spoon before turning to search for Taylor. His deep chuckle is what gives away his location and you turn to see him sitting at a table near the wall, laughing with Javan. 

As you take the first few steps towards your work friends, Spades turns in your hand. 

“Can we sit alone?”

Your steps slow as you regard your Bitty. “Huh? You don’t want to sit with them?” He shakes his head. “Why not?”

He frowns and looks around. “Just like you.”

“You only like me?” You giggle. “Well thank you. I like you too, but these are also my work friends. You don’t have to like them or make friends with them if you don’t want to, okay? Just stay close to me and I’ll make sure they leave you alone. Is that good?”

He hums, looking displeased.

“Remember earlier when we talked about being nice? Well, you don’t have to do anything, but I like to be nice to these people because they’re nice to me. Does that make sense?”

“…Yes..”

You smile. “Some people like a lot of friends and others only like a few. You don’t have to like everyone, but it makes interacting with people easier if you are nice and they are nice.”

“What if they are not nice?”

“Hm, then you have to decide how to interact with them. It’s different for everyone. If I didn’t get along with Javan, I wouldn’t talk with him too much and I wouldn’t go out of my way to see him. But, because we work together, I would try to be polite. No mean words, no rude remarks. Just simple and courteous ‘hello’s and ‘goodbye’s.” 

“Why even that?”

“Because it would make work easier. If I went out of my way to show him that I didn’t like him, then he could do the same to me if he wanted. It would make me hate coming into work because I would have to argue with him all day. Not only that, but many of the other people I know here would avoid me as well. Everyone judges how they interact with you by judging how you interact with others. If I was mean, they might think I would be mean to them too.”

The two of you reach the table and you set down the lunch and Spades. He stays close to you as you take a seat and then makes sure to stay between you and the lunch box.

“Saw you takin’ your sweet time getting here.” Javan jokes.

Taylor laughs. “You don’t have to sit with us if you don’t want to.”

You smile at them, knowing they’re only half teasing. “Shush. I like you guys. Just had to walk and talk.”

Javan nods his head and takes a bite of his cake slice. “Ah yes. A difficult task.” Taylor chokes on his water and has to laugh through his nose instead.

“Like thinking and breathing.” You joke. The table laughs.

“So, how’s your Tiny?” 

“Seems to be hiding behind your lunch there.” Taylor leans around to wave two fingers at Spades, who backs closer to the lunch bag and focuses on his cookie. 

“We worked really hard in the basement today. He was teleporting around left and right trying to get multiple things done at once. Wore himself out and fell asleep.” The guys chuckle and you take a bite of sandwich. 

“He seems real quiet.” Javan leans around the table to peak at Spades, but can’t see him from his angle. “Never seen one like him bah-fore neither. What did you say he was?”

“A Blackberry, and they’re new. Sort of. They need very specific requirements to be born. I don’t know all the details but Mama Nina said this was the first time she saw one around here.”

The guys seem more curious about Spades now and you take a bite of a cookie to get a moment to think. The taste of lemon cream derails your thoughts though, and you study the pale cookie in your hand. You could have sworn you packed a bag of strawberry cookies, but maybe a lemon got picked too. Spades shifted in your peripheral vision and you look over to see him contently eating a cookie. 

With lemon crème. 

“Hey, Spades?” Your bitty turns to look at you after taking another bite. There is a moment where you consider  _ not _ telling him that it’s a lemon cookie, but.. “Do you like the lemon crème cookies?” He nods and glances to the left where Taylor is leaning over to see him. “But you don’t like lemons?” 

Your bitty shakes his head furiously.

Taylor laughs at the exchange and straightens in his chair. You can only smile at Spades and rub his head as you take another bite of your own cookie and evaluate it. It was sweeter than a lemon, but not one of those “lemon  _ flavored _ ” things. It was a clear mix of lemon, lemon zest and sugar. Maybe the added sugar was why he liked it?

Javan laughs at the recap Taylor gave him and starts peppering you with more questions about Blackberries. There isn’t much you can explain to him, but you try your best anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 7 pages, 3586 words


End file.
